This is pretty cool. I believe it was Bob Metcalf at PARC who had a device in his office that was hooked up to the 3Mbs Ethernet cable and would essentially do the same thing. He built and installed it to get a feel for how much of an issue "collisions" would really be on the network. At the time, the idea that you could just back off when you detected a collision and re-transmit was considered heresy of the highest order and the "experts" all believed that once you got to a certain small number of clients the wire would be overwhelmed with collisions and the network would be unusable. His gizmo proved that wasn't the case.
cole-k 20 hours ago [-]
This went over my head at first, but I really like it. So for those like me: it converts network traffic into audio output.
Yes kinda, I would say network activity rather then traffic. Audio signal is going to be in scale of 48Khz while measuring ethernet signal at scale of 100Mhz. At that rate it wouldn't even get more then 1 sample from a full size packet. So really it's polling 48Khz whether or not there was activity during that period. The gimmick is that it uses some analog components. Fully digital you could craft a meaningful audio signal that represents traffic.
echelon 15 hours ago [-]
This is a fun demonstration of the principle.
"every website sounds different" - that's super cool.
The bitmap images sent at the end of the video also sound really cool.
riknos314 20 hours ago [-]
> if possible disable encryption, then you can profit from not only timing pattern (of white noise), but also listen in on the plaintext payload. the NSA loves plaintext.
Haha, incredible.
On a more serious note this is a really cool idea. Would be interesting to listen to the same origin traffic in different network conditions to hear things like TCP rate control.
In NSA parlance, a "selector" primarily is a string that semi-uniquely identifies and addresses a persons intercepted data, such as
- an IP address,
- an email address,
- a phone number,
- a SIM card's MSIN
- a person's social security number,
- a national ID card number,
- a passport number,
- a social media handle etc.
(elsewhere also known as "accessor", "key", "handle" or "index")
dylan604 17 hours ago [-]
Since he's building a sequencer, I'm almost disappointed it wasn't named Selecta.
Rewind Bo Selecta!!
jonathanstrange 18 hours ago [-]
They are interesting because combining and updating them is a non-trivial problem, as I've realized today while implementing a user ban system.
Terr_ 17 hours ago [-]
There's a certain system I work with where random unauthenticated visitors on the internet end up supplying data like name/phone/email, with no validation... And of course, the business wants to somehow convert that into a list of "real people" and start correlating it to other records.
I've been trying to stop anything too terrible from happening by asking them to clarify their business requirements, e.g. what should happen when there is malicious impersonation, or the expected result should be when inconsistencies and overlaps exist.
It's not like there's no value to the data... but I'm afraid they don't really understand the problem are are hoping the magic computer can somehow *poof* garbage into fine cuisine.
transcriptase 16 hours ago [-]
“Enrichment” is what they actually want. People think it’s Google, Amazon, Facebook etc selling their data when in reality they are simply letting people target based on it.
On the other hand there are hundreds of companies nobody has ever heard of that do buy, collate, clean, and sell access to the data that apps, browser extensions, windows apps, loyalty card programs, branded credit cards, retailers, and companies that scrape LinkedIn etc will happily sell.
You provide what you have and for a price these “enrichment” services will provide what is essentially a dossier of everything that can be even remotely inferred from the thousands of datapoints they have based on your email/name/phone.
What most people think big tech is doing is actually being done in ways that are far more unsettling by companies with cutesy names and vague services that major companies sign contracts with to improve their signal to noise ratio.
grues-dinner 15 hours ago [-]
Everyone in countries with data protection laws: concern.
tantalor 16 hours ago [-]
That doesn't tell me why this is called selector.
Fnoord 15 hours ago [-]
> In CSS, selectors are patterns used to match, or select, the elements you want to style. Selectors are also used in JavaScript to enable selecting the DOM nodes to return as a NodeList.
From [1]. This nomenclature was also used way before CSS even existed; in SQL.
That doesn't help at all. What do SQL or CSS have to do with it
salawat 12 hours ago [-]
My guess is it is meant tongue-in-cheek seeing as it is a way to render into audio all network traffic. The idea being that if you are being targeted by some nefarious, infamous 3 letter agency who has gotten something nefarious running on your system, this could, in theory, be used to identify traffic you didn't intend to have happen.
Realistically speaking, it's hogwash because you'd have to profile all "loopback" traffic and whatnot, but in theory, with enough time and effort, that dastardly stream of bits could be heard, I guess. The circuit board itself though has quite a bit of punning in it.
Also... If they really want on your databus, they will get on your databus. After a certain point, cost is not an issue.
aa-jv 7 hours ago [-]
Probably as a piss-take? After all, the NSA is a wholesale subjugator of human rights - why not take the piss out of it?
sockp0pp3t 12 minutes ago [-]
Is there a plugin for Goom ?
tptacek 20 hours ago [-]
There used to be a thing on SunOS (I think) where you'd get `ping` to write to /dev/audio so you could diagnose network stuff by sound.
schoen 19 hours ago [-]
You can "ping -a" nowadays to get beeps for each reply, but it's not quite as cool!
monster_truck 19 hours ago [-]
You can still do this with /dev/dsp or similar. Might need sudo these days
`cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp`
rfl890 15 hours ago [-]
For a more modern approach, try ffplay: cat /dev/urandom | ffplay -f s16le -
jdthedisciple 19 hours ago [-]
thanks this almost crashed my pc
dylan604 18 hours ago [-]
some people learn the hard way that blindly copying and pasting things from the interweb directly to a terminal is not always the best of ideas. some times, they're bloody brilliant
dgfitz 18 hours ago [-]
curl $url | bash is probably the only worse culprit.
0xbadcafebee 17 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
nicce 17 hours ago [-]
Some people are just evil.
fuddy 20 hours ago [-]
One of the funnier parameters to encounter in the snoop manpage.
hottakesbun 18 hours ago [-]
The joke is on him - I used to get this functionality for free way back in the day when (what I presume was) RF noise generated during the processing of ethernet traffic would get picked up by my cheap ISA sound card and sent to the speakers. I never built a sequencer out of it though.
sevensor 18 hours ago [-]
Back in college, I would listen to AM radio while I worked on my computer. The radio would pick up electrical noise from the keyboard and the mechanical mouse. I wonder if this sounds anything like it.
anjel 15 hours ago [-]
TRS-80s were famous for bleeding over AM band. The entire AM band.
sterlind 15 hours ago [-]
I read that the FCC really started cracking down on EM interference because early microcomputers were serious offenders. I'm guessing that's why there's a humongous RF shield inside my Amiga 1200.
Xx_crazy420_xX 13 hours ago [-]
It would be nice to compare all packets dumped by system and check if there are any unmatching packets running from your computer that were not sent by OS but a closed source hardware inside like Intel ME
ww520 20 hours ago [-]
Good for network wiring diagnostic. It would be great if it can pipe the noise to Bluetooth audio. I can pair a headphone to it, plug this into the network in another room and still can hear it while checking the line connections on the switch/router.
hnuser123456 18 hours ago [-]
That audio port is blasting out a total bandwidth of 100 Mbps (4 bits at 25 MHz) versus 768 Kbps for BT audio, assuming a high quality codec (16 bits at 48 KHz), so not without loss.
ww520 15 hours ago [-]
Can be downsampled for the purpose. It's just noise after all.
rurban 19 hours ago [-]
Don't forget the GHCQ which installs a mirror on each UK modem. I don't think the NSA goes to these extremes
godman_8 19 hours ago [-]
I've worked with quite a few ISPs and exchanges. I haven't set up port mirrors for the NSA but I have setup temporary mirrors for the FBI upon request.
0xbadcafebee 17 hours ago [-]
The NSA/govt gets its own dedicated floor in some DCs, esp. large interconnects
dekhn 17 hours ago [-]
The NSA worked with GHCQ to tap Google's fiber between data centers, which at the time, was not encrypted. You can see several presentations including "SSL added and removed here" (reference to the SSL connection being terminated at the Google front end and then transmitted unencrypted to the backend in another data center), as well as an actual BigTable packet from tcpdump that included a user identifier.
If you read The Idea Factory, it shows that AT&T leadership worked closely with NSA and other governmental agencies (on a "secret schedule" so nobody would know who the execs were meeting with) to help them access US phone data.
I'd love to know the extent of what NSA has done between its founding and today; I'm sure they've pulled off some astounding things, and bolluxed up other stuff badly.
cs02rm0 6 hours ago [-]
FWIW, as we've had this twice, GCHQ - Government Communications Headquarters.
neuroelectron 13 hours ago [-]
I doubt encryption makes much of a difference, depending on the magic numbers in your implementation.
tgmatt 15 hours ago [-]
This seems hard to believe, given how many different modems from different sources you can use, as well as thirdparty ones. Source?
stavros 17 hours ago [-]
Oh man, I really hope they don't get all my TLS connections.
danesparza 20 hours ago [-]
The Snowden silkscreen is a nice touch. What a great hardware build!
Feature request: Replace all the blinking LEDs with these to drown out the fan noise in the server room.
als0 18 hours ago [-]
Stuff like this is exactly why I come to Hacker News.
1317 19 hours ago [-]
You can also achieve something like this with a powerline networking adapter + a shortwave radio
bit evil really, they shit up almost the entire 0-30mhz
but they do work...
desertmonad 18 hours ago [-]
Imagining in a server farm. Cool project!
phendrenad2 18 hours ago [-]
Can you say "calm down my selector"?
Liftyee 18 hours ago [-]
Great idea and +1 for excellent PCB art!
aa-jv 7 hours ago [-]
Many times over the decades I have constructed a MIDI->Audio cable so that I can record MIDI signals as audio, which as a technique is very useful for measuring and fixing MIDI->Synthesizer engine latency.
Its nice to know that if I ever get around to shipping a product with RTP-Midi (MIDI over Ethernet), I can just get a ready-made Eurorack module to do that testing! :P
psunavy03 18 hours ago [-]
Cool idea to audio-ize network traffic. Artwork is peak edgelord cringe, though . . .
fnord77 15 hours ago [-]
So could you stream an MP4 movie, record the sound, then decode the sound back into a (probably lossy) reconstruction of the movie?
amelius 20 hours ago [-]
Cool, but I was hoping for some 80s era modem sounds.
deadbabe 16 hours ago [-]
The seller does not ship to the United States at all..
:(
How are you going to name this product after the NSA, and not ship to the US???
reaperducer 15 hours ago [-]
The seller does not ship to the United States at all.. :(
How are you going to name this product after the NSA, and not ship to the US???
Click through, and you'll find a more expensive version that is shipped to the US. It's called TariffBox.
deadbabe 14 hours ago [-]
We should make an American version and not allow it for sale anywhere else but the US.
aa-jv 7 hours ago [-]
You should make the NSA not function anywhere but within the US too, while you're at it.
lazide 52 minutes ago [-]
Their charter is literally to spy on everyone outside the US.
You might as well ask the SVR/GRU to stick to snooping on Russians.
m463 20 hours ago [-]
No Such Agen^H^H^H^HAttachment
yapyap 17 hours ago [-]
So ridiculous, love it
fefawfefafds 16 hours ago [-]
[dead]
fdaffeafe 16 hours ago [-]
[dead]
gitroom 17 hours ago [-]
[dead]
TacticalCoder 17 hours ago [-]
[dead]
20 hours ago [-]
20 hours ago [-]
fasdfdsa 16 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
rekttrader 21 hours ago [-]
This is killer art
Rendered at 15:51:28 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
YouTube explainer: https://youtu.be/vfgySTaM1TI
"every website sounds different" - that's super cool.
The bitmap images sent at the end of the video also sound really cool.
Haha, incredible.
On a more serious note this is a really cool idea. Would be interesting to listen to the same origin traffic in different network conditions to hear things like TCP rate control.
https://www.agwa.name/blog/post/cloudflare_ssl_added_and_rem...
- an IP address,
- an email address,
- a phone number,
- a SIM card's MSIN
- a person's social security number,
- a national ID card number,
- a passport number,
- a social media handle etc.
(elsewhere also known as "accessor", "key", "handle" or "index")
Rewind Bo Selecta!!
I've been trying to stop anything too terrible from happening by asking them to clarify their business requirements, e.g. what should happen when there is malicious impersonation, or the expected result should be when inconsistencies and overlaps exist.
It's not like there's no value to the data... but I'm afraid they don't really understand the problem are are hoping the magic computer can somehow *poof* garbage into fine cuisine.
On the other hand there are hundreds of companies nobody has ever heard of that do buy, collate, clean, and sell access to the data that apps, browser extensions, windows apps, loyalty card programs, branded credit cards, retailers, and companies that scrape LinkedIn etc will happily sell.
You provide what you have and for a price these “enrichment” services will provide what is essentially a dossier of everything that can be even remotely inferred from the thousands of datapoints they have based on your email/name/phone.
What most people think big tech is doing is actually being done in ways that are far more unsettling by companies with cutesy names and vague services that major companies sign contracts with to improve their signal to noise ratio.
From [1]. This nomenclature was also used way before CSS even existed; in SQL.
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_selecto...
Realistically speaking, it's hogwash because you'd have to profile all "loopback" traffic and whatnot, but in theory, with enough time and effort, that dastardly stream of bits could be heard, I guess. The circuit board itself though has quite a bit of punning in it.
Also... If they really want on your databus, they will get on your databus. After a certain point, cost is not an issue.
`cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp`
If you read The Idea Factory, it shows that AT&T leadership worked closely with NSA and other governmental agencies (on a "secret schedule" so nobody would know who the execs were meeting with) to help them access US phone data.
I'd love to know the extent of what NSA has done between its founding and today; I'm sure they've pulled off some astounding things, and bolluxed up other stuff badly.
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=46328&cid=477520411
bit evil really, they shit up almost the entire 0-30mhz
but they do work...
Its nice to know that if I ever get around to shipping a product with RTP-Midi (MIDI over Ethernet), I can just get a ready-made Eurorack module to do that testing! :P
How are you going to name this product after the NSA, and not ship to the US???
Click through, and you'll find a more expensive version that is shipped to the US. It's called TariffBox.
You might as well ask the SVR/GRU to stick to snooping on Russians.