kismet: Too cool for the average tool

Sometimes I find stuff that is so cool to watch and look at, that I don’t even notice that I have no clue what it’s doing.

Here’s kismet, which falls easily into that category.

Mentally I lump this with things like wavemon or ettercap, where I’m getting a lot of data that I just don’t understand.

But it looks really cool. Throw this up on your screen at a geek party and you will not go home alone. 😉

Actually I do have a vague idea what’s happening there, but it doesn’t behoove me to know what it is. Ignorance is the better part of valor … this time.

kismet is mostly menu-driven, and will bounce boxed messages in front of your face if it really wants your attention.

It also has a live-action display, as you can see, and takes a healthy series of command-line options too. This is a very impressive console application, people.

Of course, you have to know what you’re doing with it. Otherwise, it’s just another cool tool. I’ve got a lot of those lying around. 😉