Pigeon 'faster than broadband'

Website · Post by **Cody** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:02 pm

Just seen this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8248056.stm

Chaky · Post by **Chaky** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:15 pm

25 Megabeek, flap-rate, overcomes any firewall, order one and get a free 4 GB stick and a good luck blessing on your car.

Ping is a bugger, though.

Diziet Sma · Post by **Diziet Sma** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:17 pm

Chaky wrote:
Ping is a bugger, though.

Gee, thanks Chaky.. now there's coffee sprayed all over my monitor..

Chaky · Post by **Chaky** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:19 pm

Coffee for everybody!

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:55 pm

The stories about the corruption behind Hellkom are legion - when I was out there some days I'd get less than 40kb/s on a "broadband" ADSL connection.

I know one South Afican guy who had his broadband connection pulled by Hellkom because the previous owner of the building hadn't paid his Internet Bill - Hellkom would turn it back on until he paid the equivalent of £1000 and as Hellkom is the sole provider of Internet in SA you can't go anywhere else (although the 3G mobile broadband network has been unbundled)

Wiki pages · Post by **Thargoid** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:08 pm

The story reminded me of an old saying my old sys-hack at uni used to have (way back when, circa early 90's) about people doing something similar with "this new fangled internet thing" and floppy discs. The punchline quote was "never underestimate the data transfer rate of a clapped-out station wagon with a trunk full of floppy discs..." or something similar.

Cmdr Wyvern · Post by **Cmdr Wyvern** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:19 pm

DaddyHoggy wrote:
The stories about the corruption behind Hellkom are legion - when I was out there some days I'd get less than 40kb/s on a "broadband" ADSL connection.

I know one South Afican guy who had his broadband connection pulled by Hellkom because the previous owner of the building hadn't paid his Internet Bill - Hellkom would turn it back on until he paid the equivalent of £1000 and as Hellkom is the sole provider of Internet in SA you can't go anywhere else (although the 3G mobile broadband network has been unbundled)

They'll have to improve their service or drop their prices, now that they have fierce competition from the avian courier front. Meanwhile, PNY and Sandisk, and a number of birdseed suppliers do a booming business.

zevans · Post by **zevans** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:51 pm

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a lorry full of tapes." Which I still trot out on a regular basis when it comes to DC moves and recovery planning, because if there's one thing that happens a lot in Big Technology, it's that people try and make things too complicated and forget it's all about the data, not the centre.

I've bookmarked it under "examples!"

zevans · Post by **zevans** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:57 pm

Thargoid wrote:
The story reminded me of an old saying my old sys-hack at uni used to have (way back when, circa early 90's)

The phrase was doing the rounds on Usenet at the time by the way... I've noticed lots of ex-Uni-systems people have a whole vocabulary of Internet history, which I suppose is because Universities were heavy Usenet/Gopher/Mosaic users where most businesses weren't, in the early to mid 90s.

I mix and match because I worked at a Uni until 1998 and then I was in London for the dotcom era, but come to think of it most of the most valuable lessons on this kind of thing are all from the first job, not the second one...

Wiki pages · Post by **Thargoid** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:41 pm

Yup, sounds about right. I can remember using all three (UseNet/Gopher/Mosaic).

drew · Post by **drew** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:33 am

Yeah but... what's the latency on a pigeon, eh?

Cheers,

Drew.

Diziet Sma · Post by **Diziet Sma** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:49 am

drew wrote:
Yeah but... what's the latency on a pigeon, eh?

Cheers,

Drew.

Chaky beat you to it, I think..

Chaky wrote:
Ping is a bugger, though.

drew · Post by **drew** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:17 am

Oh blast.. and it were a good 'un, too!

Cheers,

Drew.