The diagram itself (http://research.swtch.com/tcpviz.png ) looks like an optical illusion - does anyone else feel like the horizontal stripes are actually sloping downwards?
Yes I did. The closest commonly listed illusion I can find is the Zöllner illusion[1], but that uses uniformly lengthed, angled short lines in differing directions to make parallel lines look unparallel. This uses a biased saw-tooth to create the impression that the trend of the line gradually curves down. I wonder if it has a name.
Interesting effect. It could be used nicely in many graphic design contexts, although probably more subtly than demonstrated here.
