Smoke Series

processing java application, june 2007, jim soliven

Started delving into Ken Perlin's noise algorithm and applied it to the Torsion series below. The results are amazing images which resembles smoke. The beauty of coding generative algorithms is that you are always surprised(sometimes frustrated) by the results. This series turned out a lot better than I expected.

Sample images below:

Wiresquid Network Sniffer

processing java application, july 2007, jim soliven

more images found on my flickr

Wiresquid is Wireshark's illegitimate kin. It is a graphic visualization of a network packet "flow" that occurs during a TCP/IP session. Each network packet that flows from the source receives a response or two from a destination. Each transaction is represented by a tentacle that forms from the construct.

A list of features for Wiresquid follows:

• Each time you send a packet to the network, a destination host responds to the request. The request can be broken down into smaller packets or TCP windows. Each collection of packets is a flow.
• For every flow leaving your macine, it is represented as an object that leaves from the "src".
• Each response to a request from the destination host is represented by an object that flows towards the "src". Each flow is color coded depending on the IP address of the responding host.
  
• A response from the host is represented by a tentacle from the "squid" construct in the middle. Traffic flows outside the range of your IP address subnet mask is represented by a white tentacle. Traffic that is local to the IP address range is marked by green.

I work as a Network Analyst during the day. In my day-to-day operations I find it necessary to sniff traffic on a wire to examine packets and analyze the network. I've always been fascinated by the possibility of using the network as a source of data for graphic visualization purposes. Wiresquid is my first attempt at furthering my interests.

Files and Source Code:

application.macosx.zip - Wiresquid macosx application. Requires OpenGL, Java 1.5. Before running the application, you'll need to change the permisions on certain files to allow the application to run as root. Open a terminal window and type "sudo chmod 777 /dev/bpf*". Enter your password then the application should be able to run.

application.linux.zip - Wiresquid Linux application. Requires everything that the MacOSX application needs. I didn't really test this application since the two Linux servers I play around with are Pentium 800 Mhz machines and do not support OpenGL(boo! No Beryl!)

There is no Windows version of the application. The reason being is that all three of my windows machines cannot run the application due to a bug on the CarnivorePE software.

Torsion Series

processing java application, march 2007, jim soliven

This is a simple dynamic particle attractor series. The simple algorithm follows a particle as it tries to follow a target point. I was originally trying to come up with an algorithm that will replicate a twine of rope but the resulting work came out to be something totally different.

The original series was created in 2005. It was a series of 3200x2400 images that I saved on my Mac Powerbook which was subsequently erased when I had to reformat to the mac due to security issues. My Mac powerbook actually got hacked! In my haste to secure the Mac, I inadvertently erased all the original printed work and the algorithm that generated it.

I liked the result of the work so much that I decided to recreate the program in 2007. It wasn't easy. The underlying algorithm is the same as the original but I guess I'm not implementing it the same way. The subsequent work generated images that wasn't as interesting as the original. The latest images are 5400x3600 images. When I get a chance, I'm going to print the images on rice paper.

Some sample images:

more images found at flickr