On Nov 12, 2003, at 7:13 PM, Marshall Clow wrote:

At 6:18 PM -0800 11/12/03, Tim May wrote:

...

A big hit was "Etherpeg," from www.etherpeg.com, which intercepts packets over a WiFi network and reconstructs the packets into JPEG images (if they exist). Since most of the Macs in the audience were on a local WiFi/"AirPort" network, arranged ad hoc, the output was put up on the LCD projector during one of the main talks. Images of naked chicks, oh my!

This was done for the hack contest at MacHack 2001, also. [ I have no idea if that was the first time, either. ]

The following year (2002) it was enhanced to return fake banner ads, since machines on the "local" net could certainly answer before "ads.doubleclick.com" could. :-)

I didn't mean to give any impression that it was done by the HC attendees, just that it was a big hit. And since there were 30-50 Macs and PCs in the audience, with many on the ad hoc WiFi/AirPort network, and many links to the outside, there were a _lot_ of JPEGs whizzing by. Sometimes a blizzard of dozens per second, sometimes just a few per second. The dynamics were interesting, too. The JPEGs started out being from porn sites, then became related to whatever the speaker was talking about. For example, if someone mentioned the evening's keynote speaker, Don Norman, a bunch of sites and photos related to him would appear (about 10 seconds later). If someone mentioned snow on the roads (near Yosemite), weather maps would appear. --Tim May