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Send Messages by Carrier Pigeons
- markyc 11y agohow do the pigeons know where to go to?
- diggan 11y agoThis is a question I have as well... As I understand carrier pigeons, is that they don't know where to go, only how to get home so usually, you'll give them a letter and they take it home, where the person then can collect the letter. But this seems different. Someone have any idea how it actually works?
- larzang 11y agoIf you read the blog posts and YC app it's pretty obviously a parody.
- zamalek 11y agoIs this compatible with existing RFC1149 deployments?
- bcraven 11y agoI don't get it, are these actual pigeons? I would have expected a photo if so...
- fiurdk 11y agocheck: https://flypigeon.co/fleet https://flypigeon.co/fleet
- moviuro 11y agoSee: https://flypigeon.co/fleet https://flypigeon.co/fleet
- ahazred8ta 11y agoYes. https://flypigeon.co/fleet https://flypigeon.co/fleet -- The service only operates in Florida (USA) so far, but they bring an actual bird to the door when delivering the message.
- samuellevy 11y agoSo print the message, and arrive holding a pigeon. No-one will know the difference.
- wongarsu 11y agoTheir YC application contains a few additional details; http://blog.flypigeon.co/our-application-to-y-combinators-w16/ http://blog.flypigeon.co/our-application-to-y-combinators-w1...
- markyc 11y ago55000 lines of code for what?
- diggan 11y ago2 different frameworks, 22 libraries and 100 domain models. For a CRUD app.
- nateberkopec 11y ago"We're ready to cut Chad out of this at any time." "What?" I'm still not sure if this whole thing is a joke or not. Poe's Law in effect.
- cushychicken 11y agoThat incubator link is brilliant.
- achairapart 11y agoI read once that carrier pigeons go only one way (back home). How does this work?
- dogma1138 11y agoMaybe some one finally took Project Pigeon and applied it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
- quinndupont 11y agoYup, it's a one way service. Here's a brilliant (long) read on the wild ways of pigeons: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/magazine/the-pigeon-king-and-the-ponzi-scheme-that-shook-canada.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/magazine/the-pigeon-king-a...
- hguant 11y agoI live in City A and want to send messages to my friend in City B. We both have a coop of carrier pigeons on our respective roofs. We meet up one day, and swap a number of pigeons. Now, if I want to talk to my friend, I just go up to my pigeon coop, select one of his pigeons, attach my message, and let the bird fly home. It's like swapping private keys, except it can only happen in person.
- FilterSweep 11y agoWhen you exchange the number of pigeons, do they need to observe the travel back to City A to set directional bearings, or do you need to keep them in darkness so they will return to City B out of pure instinct? Apologies for my ignorance, asking for myself and a friend....
- hguant 11y agoAccording to this [1] nature article, homing pigeons have an innate sense of where 'home' is and can use the Earth's magnetic field to point themselves in the right direction, thanks to iron in their beaks. They don't need to 'learn' the path, like some migratory birds - they have a built in GPS. Which is kind of neat, when you think about it. [1] http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041122/full/news041122-7.html http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041122/full/news041122-7.htm...
- avip 11y agoThis is great. Is expanding to Alaska and Hawaii on the roadmap?
- joshuaturner 11y agoWe're hard a work developing North Face jackets and water wings to make this a reality.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- willyyr 11y agoI would like to use this. Would make a great and very special birthday gift. Any plans to expand this to other countries?
- tempodox 11y agoThe next generation of pigeons will have genetically engineered trans-atlantic and trans-pacific flight endurance capability.
- willyyr 11y agoNice, though i'm sure recruiting from other cities wouldn't be a problem. Lot's of pigeons in every major city and tourist spots.
- tempodox 11y agoExactly, and most of them are out of a job right now. Employment opportunities as Pigeon-Of-Piece have gone down drastically over the past couple of years. The Pigeon-as-a-Service industry has an opportunity here to step up in the name of social responsibility and do its share to increase and distribute wealth in one of the most ignored sectors of the populace.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- th0br0 11y agoI love how they're touting their in-office kergerator to potential hires. The "heigene" typo on their "Junior Caretaker" job offer is weird though.
- tempodox 11y agoThe typo clearly qualifies its author as a beneficiary of the U.S. education system.
- kcorbitt 11y agoSo I don't blame anyone for taking this seriously (it took me 5 minutes of reading their blog before I finally convinced myself it was a joke), but this is definitely a parody. I mean, just look at this from their YC application: > Our initial market research suggests Pigeon can become a major player in the pigeon-as-a-service (PaaS) space. > It's difficult to explain to non-pigeon users (NPUs), but the excitement is real... EDIT: When I posted this most of the comments in this thread seemed to take the company at face value. The multiple references to RFC 1149 and the "fleet" page since then have rather changed the tone. :)
- willyyr 11y agoI'm pretty sure it is, but it's still fun to play along with it :)
- sageabilly 11y agoYeah this is Poe's law to the extreme....
- tempodox 11y agoIndeed, if we also cut out the browser and the cloud, then NSA and colleagues will just have to train their own under-cover stool pigeons. This should be fun to watch.
- zamalek 11y agoThe problem with using pigeons for transferring private data is the automatic route tracing (as described in RFC1149). Any person will notice any pigeon routing that is being performed and this may provide enough information for future packets to be captured in transit. However carefully designed dietary controls can reduce the risk, for example, by limiting fiber intake.
- FilterSweep 11y agoHow do Pigeons instinctual drone-aversion tactics fare?
- kraftman 11y agoDoes this implement the full spec from RFC 1149? https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149
- cec 11y agoI love how in all of their "meet the fleet" headshots, the birds are totally out of focus, only the grass in the background is clear
- morgante 11y agoI honestly can't tell if this is a joke or not...
- em3rgent0rdr 11y agowill it scale?
- basseq 11y agoIs it April First already?
- scottmcdot 11y agoOpportunity: "Get Early Bird Access"
- joshuaturner 11y agoI can't believe we didn't use this. Would you like a job in our puns department?
- oneeyedpigeon 11y agoCan I apply for a position as COO?
- malusmage 11y agoUnfortunately, that position is already occoopied. However, you can check out our careers page to learn more about the available positions: https://flypigeon.co/careers https://flypigeon.co/careers
- oneJob 11y agoPerhaps once your customer base warrants it, you might consider adding the "Chief Operating Officer for Puns" (COOP) role?
- happyscrappy 11y agoWhat is the latency like?
- lukeasrodgers 11y agoIf you're willing to trade very high latency for high bandwidth, could be worth it, see https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/.
- bryanrasmussen 11y agoWait until you see my startup to send passengers by passenger pigeon.
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoThis is all in good fun, but let's also recognize that there is serious utility for this form of communication - especially in complex electromagnetic environments like wartime. To that end, as recently as 2011 Chinese PLA have 10s of thousands of trained carrier pigeons for secure message transport.[1] 1: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8356921/China-trains-army-of-messenger-pigeons.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8356921...
- RankingMember 11y agoIn a similar vein, I'm working on an app that maps the location of hot pies cooling on windowsills next to open windows in your locality. ;)
- joshuaturner 11y agoThe real question is how much VC will you need to make it a reality?
- fsiefken 11y agoI would pay money for such a delivery system, but it would only work with pidgeon hotels/stations in each city and the more specific local distribution by for example volunteer or paid cyclists who know where to go. It would be valuable carbonfree messaging supporting the local economies (and health of pidgeons)! You could also do solar powered fidonet-like raspberry pi asynchronous national network and print-outs (or handwriting) for last mile delivery but that would perhaps be more difficult and expensive to setup. Not sure if either would be a viable business plan.
- daleco 11y agoTheir startup is actually upstair in my building since a couple months. I'll go talk to them to figure out what's going on. I guess it's a way to get attention and that they will provide some sort of secure messaging system.
- malusmage 11y agoNo other messaging than this exists. We've been waiting for a couple weeks, squirt. Come up here, and I'd be happy to show you the press kit and everything else. Taco Tuesday's tomorrow! God bless.