3 ms·
Pigeon beats broadband in data transfer race
- edw519 17y ago...pitted a homing pigeon carrying 4GB of data on a USB stick against its broadband connection... Instantly double throughput with an 8GB USB stick.
- codeodor 17y agoHalf of the time was spent getting the data from the stick onto the computer, while only half was spent with the pigeon flying. So, it will go up, but with quickly diminishing returns.
- electromagnetic 17y ago> However, he admits the plan is not without its difficulties: "There are other problems, of course. Winston is vulnerable to the weather and predators such as hawks. Obviously he will have to take his chances but we're confident this system can work for us,' says Rolfe. They might need to retransmit once or twice a month too . . .
- socillion 17y agoRedundant pigeons would reduce the data loss, although maintenance costs would rise.
- electromagnetic 17y agoI have a 32GB USB stick somewhere, that's an 8-fold throughput increase. I'm guessing my 500GB portable hard drive would be a bit too heavy for a pigeon . . . I suppose you could do packet bursting by strapping the hard drive to several pigeons.
- profquail 17y agoArticle with a little more info, and a picture of Winston (the pigeon): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1212214/Company-enlists-Winston-homing-pigeon-carry-data-transfer--faster-broadband.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1212214/Co...
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoEveryone should know it's the latency that matters, not the throughput. However, this is proving to be a very popular story on HN. http://searchyc.com/pigeon?sort=by_date http://searchyc.com/pigeon?sort=by_date shows various comments already scattered through these HN items: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=816329 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=816329 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=815840 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=815840 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=815593 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=815593 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=815501 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=815501 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814443 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814443 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=813313 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=813313
- dagw 17y agoEveryone should know it's the latency that matters, not the throughput. Depends entirely on the problem you are trying to solve. Sometimes DVDs in the post really is the best solution. I've done it on more than one occasion.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoOf course. I was kind-of assuming everyone here would recognise and appreciate the reference to this article: http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/rants/Latency.html http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/rants/Latency.html Perhaps I was wrong.
- jancona 17y agoObligatory RFC 1149 reference: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149 We may have to update the old "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes..." chestnut.
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoIf two pigeons had a line between them, they could carry a 1TB drive. Or maybe four pigeons. With something like a flying hammock. I think the key question is: are pigeons migratory? (I am really, really sorry, but this article was just too much for a Monty Python fan. And it's a Saturday too)
- pistoriusp 17y agoThey also should have mentioned that transferring 4GB of data in South Africa will set you back ~$30.
- adatta02 17y agoprobably true for a lot of places http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet