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It's fascinating to think that in 1869 there were Transatlantic telegraph links. One could have sat this entrance exam in London while it was being sat in MA si
by ddol 16y ago
It's fascinating to think that in 1869 there were Transatlantic telegraph links. One could have sat this entrance exam in London while it was being sat in MA simultaneously, with Questions/Answers transmitted digitally.
- tokenadult 16y agoWhat was the bandwidth of that telegraph link? And what were the clerical procedures for passing message text from a sending client to the telegraph operator at the sending end, and from the the telegraph operator to the recipient at the receiving end? Just how simultaneous was communication after the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was laid? Much faster than any ship, surely, but fast enough (and inexpensive enough for most people?) for cheating on a Harvard entrance examination?
- noonespecial 16y agoFirst contact was made in 1858, but the cable failed in mere days. The first reliable link happened in 1866. It ran about half "telegraph speed", which was pretty darn slow. I'd hate to connect to that bbs. It's a fascinating read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable
- robflynn 16y agoSlow, but amazing at the same time. I love thinking about things like this. I remember someone calling my old BBS, back in the early 90s, with a TDD to see what would happen. That explained why I had been seeing 300bps callers when I was used to seeing 1200bps-2400bps. I recall one holiday starting the download of a picture of a bear. I then went and had Thanksgiving dinner with my family for about two hours. I arrived home just in time for the picture to finish downloading. :P
- noonespecial 16y agoI completely remember those gifs coming in one agonizing line after the other, except mine were... uuh.. Also bears.