xkcd's internet map tool implemented. Can we have?

September 4, 2007 3:22 PM

Someone went and implemented xkcd's internet map - it generates pictures like this. Matt, would you be willing to dump a couple days worth of access_log IPs into this tool?
posted by dmd to Feature Requests at 3:22 PM (63 comments total)

That'd be dang neat.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:24 PM on September 4, 2007

oh snap i love xkcd and this is awesome
posted by lazaruslong at 3:26 PM on September 4, 2007

is this picture like the one you linked some reduced scale version of an actual map of some portion of the internet? Because right now I'm staring at purple lights that don't tell me a whole lot. I'm not trying to snark or anything, i just don't get it.
posted by shmegegge at 3:29 PM on September 4, 2007

Compare it with the xkcd map linked above—they're congruent, is the thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:34 PM on September 4, 2007

no no, what I mean is I don't get the xkcd map, either.
posted by shmegegge at 3:35 PM on September 4, 2007

they're congruent, is the thing

And thus, likely to be eaten.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:36 PM on September 4, 2007 [15 favorites]

IRFH, I'm not sure if you should be proud or ashamed.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:39 PM on September 4, 2007

Explanation of the map's topology.
posted by dmd at 3:40 PM on September 4, 2007

Shame is for the weak.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:40 PM on September 4, 2007

Looking at these maps, I feel like Lt. Col. Henry Blake in M*A*S*H (the movie) as he was reviewing the football plays:

"Oh, yes. Oh, yes, very nice, very good. What do all these little X's and O's and arrows mean?"
posted by fandango_matt at 3:58 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

GET TORCH
posted by loquacious at 4:01 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd forgotten HP and DEC both had blocks assigned to them and that therefor HP now has two.
posted by Mitheral at 4:04 PM on September 4, 2007

I don't keep access logs at all now.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:17 PM on September 4, 2007 [2 favorites]

Well, that's that.

But that's a good thing, for most purposes, I guess.
posted by dmd at 4:23 PM on September 4, 2007

Yes, but he COULD, since they exist in RAM, that pirate!
posted by TheNewWazoo at 4:34 PM on September 4, 2007

aren't there privacy issues here? is it ok to give out a list of all ip addresses that have accessed the site (which is what i understand you'd get from this image)?
posted by andrew cooke at 4:40 PM on September 4, 2007

oh, sorry, just read matt's comment.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:40 PM on September 4, 2007

"I don't keep access logs at all now."

You dangerous rebel! Keep sticking it to the man!

FIGHT THE POWER!

note: lol
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:46 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

What's up with the hosts that seem to have IPs in the unallocated space around 116?
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:59 PM on September 4, 2007

Did you know that your computer is BROADCASTING YOUR IP ADDRESS RIGHT NOW?

Run and hide. It may already be too late!
posted by dmd at 5:15 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Huh? Dump a coupla day's what logs into whose tool? Gaht-dang, buddy, yew sum kinda prevert er sumpin'?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:29 PM on September 4, 2007

I don't keep access logs at all now.

Could you do so for a couple of days or so?
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:34 PM on September 4, 2007

What's up with the hosts that seem to have IPs in the unallocated space around 116?

The 116.0.0.0/8 IP net block isn't unallocated — the xkcd comic as well as the referenced tool are out of date. The 116/8 through 120/8 blocks were allocated by IANA to the APNIC registry, for assignment to networks in the Asia Pacific region, in January of 2007. The latest IANA assignments can be found here.
posted by RichardP at 5:35 PM on September 4, 2007

Pope Guilty writes "Could you do so for a couple of days or so?"

To be useful the logs should span at least a week.
posted by Mitheral at 5:45 PM on September 4, 2007

To be useful the logs should span at least a week.

True. I don't come here on Tuesdays.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:58 PM on September 4, 2007

So, basically, this is just a straight line folded up into a grid. It's pretty, but I'm not sure how useful it is.
posted by empath at 7:38 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

mathowie writes "I don't keep access logs at all now."

mathowie's to be congratulated for this, not dissuaded from it. Good work, matt.

Even better, matt, how about you stop recording IPs along with comments.
posted by orthogonality at 7:41 PM on September 4, 2007

Even better, matt, how about you stop recording IPs along with comments.

Eh, I have to know where the "help me kill myself" people are coming from, as well as the dhoyts of the world.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:54 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

the dhoyts of the world

Wait - there's more than one??

Sorry.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:08 PM on September 4, 2007 [3 favorites]

empath: The "interesting" thing is that a contiguous section of the line becomes a contiguous and not too wiggly-edged area of the rectangle, after the folding.

You don't have to find that interesting yourself, but doing so is fun.
posted by aubilenon at 8:34 PM on September 4, 2007

if you took a piece of string and painted it like a rainbow, any particular point on the string is like the points near it, even though the change along the entire line goes all the way from red to violet.

it's hard to take a string like that and fold it up, pack it into a square, so that the colours remain related in all directions. you end up with blue parts of the string next to orange parts etc and it looks like a mess.

what's special about this map is that it arranges things so that colours are related in two dimensions. it's a way of folding up the string so that red bits of the string are close together and green bits of the string are close together, but red bits aren't that near green bits.

at least, that's how i understand it (except that the addresses are numbers and the numbers near each other are close together in value rather than colour).

i must admit i haven't seen a coloured version of this map. it would be interesting to see exactly what it does look like.
posted by andrew cooke at 9:07 PM on September 4, 2007

hmmm. here's some colour pictures. i'm a bit disappointed, but you get the general idea, i hope.
posted by andrew cooke at 9:09 PM on September 4, 2007

I don't keep access logs at all now.

I smell http://bittorrent.metafilter.com coming!
posted by eyeballkid at 9:15 PM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Access logs wouldn't really matter for torrents, I don't think.
posted by puke & cry at 9:26 PM on September 4, 2007

Bittorrent? MeFi?

I'd hit it.
posted by quin at 9:29 PM on September 4, 2007

"Access logs wouldn't really matter for torrents, I don't think."

The context here is that the RIAA is arguing in some court case that some bittorrent tracker, even though it isn't keeping logs, still has the data available in RAM and that, therefore, they should have to dump the data in RAM so that the RIAA can go after copyright infringers. The judge in the case agreed and the site in question is dumping their RAM regularly. Or maybe not, maybe they're fighting it, I don't recall. But you get the basic idea.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:49 PM on September 4, 2007

Maybe it's the MPAA, actually. As I always—or perhaps not always and too infrequently—say, you can trust me to get the gist of things correct, but don't rely on any details you hear form me.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:50 PM on September 4, 2007

I don't keep access logs at all now

Seriously, that's just cool.
posted by dhammond at 9:55 PM on September 4, 2007

I get about one enraged letter every six months telling me I HAVE to DISCLOSE the PERSON who UPLOADED the INFORMATION or they will SUE ME, DO THEY MAKE THEMSELVES CLEAR?

All I can tell them is "you know as much as I do." (I don't keep logs either.) Good going, Matt.
posted by maxwelton at 10:12 PM on September 4, 2007

The MPAA forced TorrentSpy to start dumping RAM data, since they didn't keep logs. In response, TorrentSpy started blocking all US addresses, to continue protecting the privacy of their users. So the MPAA can have their logs, but there shouldn't be anyone in the logs that the MPAA can legally prosecute. The larger worry is that this serves as a precedent that data in RAM is subject to a subpoena. So even if you don't keep logs, you could be required to produce any data stored on your server, however temporarily.
posted by team lowkey at 10:57 PM on September 4, 2007

Have you ever had any success preventing a suicide, that you know about? I'd be interested on some follow-up stories on suicide related questions. Have you ever heard feedback beyond the initial call to the local authorities?
posted by geoff. at 11:24 PM on September 4, 2007

Eh, I have to know where the "help me kill myself" people are coming from, as well as the dhoyts of the world.
posted by mathowie at 10:54 PM on September 4

You're to be commended for not logging IPs, but I don't understand this. How is knowing someone's IP address going to save someone from from killing themselves. Is there a lookup table of IP addresses to real addresses?

And what in the planet of Zarquon is a dhoyt? Is that like one of those boytaur things from the other day, like a furry?
posted by Pastabagel at 7:28 AM on September 5, 2007

Each square of xkcd's map is a class A netblock, or ~1.6 million addresses. Note the name of the square numbered "34"
posted by Skorgu at 7:32 AM on September 5, 2007

And what in the planet of Zarquon is a dhoyt?

So, to recap, dhoyt was highsignal, hall of robots and jenleigh.
posted by carsonb at 7:35 AM on September 5, 2007

You're to be commended for not logging IPs, but I don't understand this. How is knowing someone's IP address going to save someone from from killing themselves. Is there a lookup table of IP addresses to real addresses?

No, but it may help the mods to locate the user if they know their ISP. (especially if he has a fixed ip or is for example an .edu user). I believe in the US most providers allocate blocks of IPs per city (by which I mean that users from the same city usually receive IPs in the same range), which might help local authorities locate the person.

And what in the planet of Zarquon is a dhoyt?
here ya go
posted by lodev at 7:36 AM on September 5, 2007

I see, thanks. So he is a boytaur.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:43 AM on September 5, 2007

The larger worry is that this serves as a precedent that data in RAM is subject to a subpoena. So even if you don't keep logs, you could be required to produce any data stored on your server, however temporarily.

I vote that we remove all the RAM from the server, cut it back to 640k, that should be enough.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:31 AM on September 5, 2007

How is knowing someone's IP address going to save someone from from killing themselves. Is there a lookup table of IP addresses to real addresses?

Someone anonymously says they want to kill themself, and all we have is an IP. Most home DSL and cable lines can give us a city and state somewhere in the world, which helps. We can tell people to check with their Wichita, Kansas suicide hotline, etc.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:43 AM on September 5, 2007

This is the primary reason I almost never ask questions on AskMe. I'm afraid if I ask them anonymously, mathowie will freak out and sick the cops on me. So, I guess in the spirit of radical honesty day on MetaFilcher, I should just buck up and ask them publicly:

1) Autoerotic asphyxiation: paper or plastic?
2) If I blow myself up on a bus or a train, can I trade in the 76 virgins for a couple of hookers and a case of Johnny Walker Red?
3) If I go out drinking with the guys and when we close down the joint and stumble out into the parking lot I call shotgun, and then proceed to reach into the back of the pickup and grab the shotgun off the gun rack and then blow my brains out with it right then and there - do you think they'd get the joke?
4) What would the most awesome way to kill myself? Something so audacious that even the haters would have to concede points for style.
5) Help me compile the perfect suicide mix-tape. First track: School's Out, by Alice Cooper. Of course there's... [Not much more left of my insides]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:42 AM on September 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

1) Paper has a nice crinkly sound to it. YMMV.
2) There's some paperwork to fill out. Best to hire an attorney to handle this for you; well worth the couple hundred to make sure all the i's are dotted and such.
3) Not immediately, but they'd laugh about it later.
4) See 3).
5) As always, Wilco.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:57 AM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wilco!? Now I really am suicidal. Thanks.
posted by loquacious at 11:16 AM on September 5, 2007

I get that a lot.
posted by wilko at 2:01 PM on September 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

What would be the most awesome way to kill myself? I'd love to read a thread about that.

But theres no way I'm going to start it, not now I know mathowie's stop suicide squad are going to smash down my door and pull the needle out of the shotgun.
posted by criticalbill at 3:56 PM on September 5, 2007

Immolation.

Oh. You said awesome. I thought you said horrible.
posted by SteveTheRed at 7:21 PM on September 5, 2007

Crucifixion.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:08 PM on September 5, 2007

Locking yourself in a cage of ravenous tigers. Then, having said cage dropped from an airplane. Now that's an awesome suicide.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:42 AM on September 6, 2007

On fire, no less. Can't forget the fire.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:42 AM on September 6, 2007

Into a big pit of razor blades.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:43 AM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yeah! Rusty razor blades.

(and, Blazecock, you just got my 666th favorite.)
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:54 AM on September 6, 2007

Yeah! YEAH! Woohoo!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:30 PM on September 6, 2007

Could the pit of rusty razor blades be located on the deck of an exploding aircraft carrier in New York harbor?
posted by blue_beetle at 2:44 PM on September 6, 2007

You lot are way too graphic. I think an awesome suicide is just swimming out into the sea until you cant swim any more and then swimming further and further until the sea swallows you up as the sun sets over the horizon and dolphins and albatross coo you to your doom.

Chased by ravenous aqua-tigers, if you like. Or maybe just sharks.

Incidentally where else does the sun set than over the horizon?
posted by criticalbill at 3:43 PM on September 6, 2007

Incidentally where else does the sun set than over the horizon?
It set's over yo' mamma! 'Cause she's so FAT!
posted by philomathoholic at 4:55 PM on September 6, 2007