Hi, everybody,
This technical note appeared at the end of daily summary of poll results for today by the VOTEMASTER (www.electoral-vote.com). Either this guy is a paranoid or, for some reason, his site has been under persistent attack for weeks to bring it down. Not sure why him, in particular. But, apparently he used the occasion to track and collect data on a big attack. From the sound of what he says, it might interest members of the group so I excerpt it below. The whole of the original is up at the above address, although, for the aforementioned reasons, getting at it may be difficult. If you have trouble getting in, try adding an integer between 1 and 8 just after the word vote and before the dot. "The site was subjected to another massive attack yesterday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the attackers. We hit the jackpot yesterday. On Sunday, 675,000 people visited the site, and typically traffic on Mondays is much higher than Sundays. Unfortunately, the site doing the real-time monitoring couldn't handle the load and gave up. On top of this, electoral-vote.com was mentioned on the main page of slashdot.com, a hugely popular tech news site. The last time I was slashdotted, I got 700,000 hits. That incident was caused by the publication of a book emitted by a Microsoft-funded think tank in D.C. claiming that Linus Torvalds stole Linux from my earlier MINIX system. I posted a vigorous and caustic rebuttal saying that the book was utter and complete nonsense. My role was that of Linus' teacher, not his coauthor. Either the impending election or the slashdotting would have driven most servers into the ground. Now throw in a massive distributed denial of service attack on the main server and the backups and you can see why the site was a tad slow yesterday. I must have called the technical staff at my hosting company, HostRocket.com 10 times yesterday. At one point I was tempted to say: "How many 2-GB Pentium 4's do you have left and can I have them all?" Ultimately I took only one more, but with help from some kind-hearted colleagues, I got mirrors up and running from Boston to San Diego. So why am I a happy camper? We survived an unprecedented triple flash crowd and logged it all. As it turns out, two of the faculty members in my Dept., Maarten van Steen and Guillaume Pierre, are doing research on coping with flash crowds. The research issues include how many replicas to set up, where to place them, how fast to deploy them, and how to do it automatically, in real time, and at minimum cost. To simulate proposed algorithms, you need data about real flash crowds and real attacks, preferably at the same time. And boy oh boy do we have data now. Students interested in this and other areas of computer systems might want to check out the English-language Masters program I am running at the Vrije Universiteit. Check back later for more info, tonight for real-time updates, and tomorrow for a post-mortem." If any of you know what a flash crowd is, I would love to know. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Professor of Psychology and Ethology Clark University [hidden email] http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/ [hidden email] |
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To understand "flash crowd" I recommend the book and website:
http://www.smartmobs.com/index.html The book describes the impact of SMS phones on a political event where a simple short message gathered enough descentors at a physical location to cause the overthrow of a south asian government. A flash crowd is a very rapid gathering at a particular physical location of a set of folks sharing something in common, generally via SMS telephone messaging. Owen On Nov 2, 2004, at 8:29 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > Hi, everybody, > > This technical note appeared at the end of daily summary of poll > results > for today by the VOTEMASTER (www.electoral-vote.com). Either this guy > is a > paranoid or, for some reason, his site has been under persistent > attack for > weeks to bring it down. Not sure why him, in particular. But, > apparently > he used the occasion to track and collect data on a big attack. From > the > sound of what he says, it might interest members of the group so I > excerpt > it below. The whole of the original is up at the above address, > although, > for the aforementioned reasons, getting at it may be difficult. If you > have trouble getting in, try adding an integer between 1 and 8 just > after > the word vote and before the dot. > > "The site was subjected to another massive attack yesterday. I would > like > to take this opportunity to thank the attackers. We hit the jackpot > yesterday. On Sunday, 675,000 people visited the site, and typically > traffic on Mondays is much higher than Sundays. Unfortunately, the site > doing the real-time monitoring couldn't handle the load and gave up. > On top > of this, electoral-vote.com was mentioned on the main page of > slashdot.com, > a hugely popular tech news site. The last time I was slashdotted, I got > 700,000 hits. That incident was caused by the publication of a book > emitted > by a Microsoft-funded think tank in D.C. claiming that Linus Torvalds > stole > Linux from my earlier MINIX system. I posted a vigorous and caustic > rebuttal saying that the book was utter and complete nonsense. My role > was > that of Linus' teacher, not his coauthor. Either the impending > election or > the slashdotting would have driven most servers into the ground. Now > throw > in a massive distributed denial of service attack on the main server > and > the backups and you can see why the site was a tad slow yesterday. I > must > have called the technical staff at my hosting company, HostRocket.com > 10 > times yesterday. At one point I was tempted to say: "How many 2-GB > Pentium > 4's do you have left and can I have them all?" Ultimately I took only > one > more, but with help from some kind-hearted colleagues, I got mirrors > up and > running from Boston to San Diego. > > So why am I a happy camper? We survived an unprecedented triple flash > crowd > and logged it all. As it turns out, two of the faculty members in my > Dept., > Maarten van Steen and Guillaume Pierre, are doing research on coping > with > flash crowds. The research issues include how many replicas to set up, > where to place them, how fast to deploy them, and how to do it > automatically, in real time, and at minimum cost. To simulate proposed > algorithms, you need data about real flash crowds and real attacks, > preferably at the same time. And boy oh boy do we have data now. > Students > interested in this and other areas of computer systems might want to > check > out the English-language Masters program I am running at the Vrije > Universiteit. > > Check back later for more info, tonight for real-time updates, and > tomorrow > for a post-mortem." > > If any of you know what a flash crowd is, I would love to know. > > Nick > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Professor of Psychology and Ethology > Clark University > [hidden email] > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/ > [hidden email] > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > http://www.friam.org > |
This is the most interesting version of flash mobs I can think of:
http://www.flashmobcomputing.org/ On Nov 3, 2004, at 10:19 AM, Owen Densmore wrote: > To understand "flash crowd" I recommend the book and website: > http://www.smartmobs.com/index.html > The book describes the impact of SMS phones on a political event where > a simple short message gathered enough descentors at a physical > location to cause the overthrow of a south asian government. > > A flash crowd is a very rapid gathering at a particular physical > location of a set of folks sharing something in common, generally via > SMS telephone messaging. > > Owen > > On Nov 2, 2004, at 8:29 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > >> Hi, everybody, >> >> This technical note appeared at the end of daily summary of poll >> results >> for today by the VOTEMASTER (www.electoral-vote.com). Either this >> guy is a >> paranoid or, for some reason, his site has been under persistent >> attack for >> weeks to bring it down. Not sure why him, in particular. But, >> apparently >> he used the occasion to track and collect data on a big attack. From >> the >> sound of what he says, it might interest members of the group so I >> excerpt >> it below. The whole of the original is up at the above address, >> although, >> for the aforementioned reasons, getting at it may be difficult. If >> you >> have trouble getting in, try adding an integer between 1 and 8 just >> after >> the word vote and before the dot. >> >> "The site was subjected to another massive attack yesterday. I would >> like >> to take this opportunity to thank the attackers. We hit the jackpot >> yesterday. On Sunday, 675,000 people visited the site, and typically >> traffic on Mondays is much higher than Sundays. Unfortunately, the >> site >> doing the real-time monitoring couldn't handle the load and gave up. >> On top >> of this, electoral-vote.com was mentioned on the main page of >> slashdot.com, >> a hugely popular tech news site. The last time I was slashdotted, I >> got >> 700,000 hits. That incident was caused by the publication of a book >> emitted >> by a Microsoft-funded think tank in D.C. claiming that Linus Torvalds >> stole >> Linux from my earlier MINIX system. I posted a vigorous and caustic >> rebuttal saying that the book was utter and complete nonsense. My >> role was >> that of Linus' teacher, not his coauthor. Either the impending >> election or >> the slashdotting would have driven most servers into the ground. Now >> throw >> in a massive distributed denial of service attack on the main server >> and >> the backups and you can see why the site was a tad slow yesterday. I >> must >> have called the technical staff at my hosting company, HostRocket.com >> 10 >> times yesterday. At one point I was tempted to say: "How many 2-GB >> Pentium >> 4's do you have left and can I have them all?" Ultimately I took only >> one >> more, but with help from some kind-hearted colleagues, I got mirrors >> up and >> running from Boston to San Diego. >> >> So why am I a happy camper? We survived an unprecedented triple flash >> crowd >> and logged it all. As it turns out, two of the faculty members in my >> Dept., >> Maarten van Steen and Guillaume Pierre, are doing research on coping >> with >> flash crowds. The research issues include how many replicas to set up, >> where to place them, how fast to deploy them, and how to do it >> automatically, in real time, and at minimum cost. To simulate proposed >> algorithms, you need data about real flash crowds and real attacks, >> preferably at the same time. And boy oh boy do we have data now. >> Students >> interested in this and other areas of computer systems might want to >> check >> out the English-language Masters program I am running at the Vrije >> Universiteit. >> >> Check back later for more info, tonight for real-time updates, and >> tomorrow >> for a post-mortem." >> >> If any of you know what a flash crowd is, I would love to know. >> >> Nick >> >> Nicholas S. Thompson >> Professor of Psychology and Ethology >> Clark University >> [hidden email] >> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/ >> [hidden email] >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe >> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: >> http://www.friam.org >> > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > http://www.friam.org |
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Piss off, Joe.
Your subscription is now suspended ;-) ____________________________________________________ http://www.redfish.com [hidden email] 624 Agua Fria Street office: (505)995-0206 Santa Fe, NM 87501 mobile: (505)577-5828 > -----Original Message----- > From: joseph spinden [mailto:[hidden email]] > Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 11:55 AM > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' > Subject: [FRIAM] FOUR MORE YEARS. > > > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > http://www.friam.org > > |
I think the subject line speaks for everyone's feelings, no matter
which side you're on. On Nov 3, 2004, at 12:06 PM, Stephen Guerin wrote: > Piss off, Joe. > > Your subscription is now suspended ;-) > > ____________________________________________________ > http://www.redfish.com [hidden email] > 624 Agua Fria Street office: (505)995-0206 > Santa Fe, NM 87501 mobile: (505)577-5828 > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: joseph spinden [mailto:[hidden email]] >> Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 11:55 AM >> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' >> Subject: [FRIAM] FOUR MORE YEARS. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe >> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: >> http://www.friam.org >> >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > http://www.friam.org |
Sorry, I missed the beginning was that supposed to be "FOUR MORON
YEARS"? On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 12:12:53 -0700, "Edward A.Puckett" <[hidden email]> said: > I think the subject line speaks for everyone's feelings, no matter > which side you're on. > > On Nov 3, 2004, at 12:06 PM, Stephen Guerin wrote: > > > Piss off, Joe. > > > > Your subscription is now suspended ;-) > > > > ____________________________________________________ > > http://www.redfish.com [hidden email] > > 624 Agua Fria Street office: (505)995-0206 > > Santa Fe, NM 87501 mobile: (505)577-5828 > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: joseph spinden [mailto:[hidden email]] > >> Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 11:55 AM > >> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' > >> Subject: [FRIAM] FOUR MORE YEARS. > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> ============================================================ > >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > >> Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > >> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > >> http://www.friam.org > >> > >> > > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > > Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > > http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe > Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.: > http://www.friam.org |
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