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Real Snail Mail

Posted by kdawson on from the slower-than-pigeons dept.

A few news outlets, mostly in the UK, have picked up the story of gastropod-enabled email delivery. The RealSnailMail project out of Bournemouth University uses snails with RFID tags to deliver email. The service will officially launch at SIGGRAPH on August 11, 2008. While it's still under development, the perpetrators write, "For testing purposes some messages may be forwarded sooner than expected. Sorry we can not guarantee unreliability of service at this time. We hope to have RealSnailMail working less predictably as soon as possible."

22 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. That was definitely... by Manfre · · Score: 5, Funny

    research time well spent.

    1. Re:That was definitely... by sm62704 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Research? Well I don't know but some good art came from it. Siggraph is computer-generated art. From TFA:

      Our snails are equipped with a miniaturised electronic circuit and antenna that enables them to be assigned messages from hardware located within their enclosure. The moment you click 'send' your message will travel at the speed of light to our snail server where it will await collection by a snail agent.


      Once associated with the tiny electronic chip on the snails shell your message will be carried around until the snail chances by the drop off point. Hardware located at this point collects the message from the snail and forwards it to its final destination.

      My old art instructors would certainly approve. This approaches Dada.
      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    2. Re:That was definitely... by Gewalt · · Score: 4, Funny

      Gives new meaning to digesting RSS feeds. Would you like garlic with that?

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    3. Re:That was definitely... by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

      and salt is all you'd need for a firewall

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    4. Re:That was definitely... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just be careful with your shell scripts.

      Particularly your bash shell scripts, or you might end up scraping goo for a few minutes.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  2. Obligatory by bgillespie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Bit of a slow day on Slashdot, isn't it?

    1. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'd say it's almost a sluggish news day.

  3. Soo.... by Drathos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can lost packets be partially attributed to interference from RFC 1149?

    --
    End of line..
  4. Enterprise technologies by suck_burners_rice · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is great news! As the CIO of a well known Fortune 500 company, I can envision some innovative global solutions built on this compelling technology.

    --
    McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
    1. Re:Enterprise technologies by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      This is great news! As the CIO of a well known Fortune 500 company, I can envision some innovative global solutions built on this compelling technology. I can envision your Fortune 500 company soon transitioning to the Fortune 500,000.
      --
      Infuriate left and right
  5. phew by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good thing this is only in the UK, otherwise the USPS might start getting worried about the competition.

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  6. Looks not quite what they say by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Most everything seems to imply that the snails actually carry the message, but the fact that the snails carry RFID chips, and that one of the developers actually says the messages are tagged when a snail wanders nearby, makes me think that the actual message does indeed travel electronically only, and all the snail does is induce an artificial (albeit organic and biodegradeable) delay.

    --
    Infuriate left and right
    1. Re:Looks not quite what they say by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, they tried to get the snails to carry the actual message, but it turns out the snails couldn't reliably copy it because not only do they lack hands, but their penmanship is atrocious.

      Attempts to get the snails to carry the emails in their internal memory were likewise unsuccessful because the snails lacked the ability to reliably retrieve the message from memory or communicate it effectively at the other end. Indeed, it was never really possible to determine if the messages were actually maintained in the snail's memory at all, even after repeated attempts to store them there. The snails did, however, form an inexplicable appetite for discount v1AgR@, so further study may be warranted.

  7. See RFC1217... by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Funny

    Snails should be just another layer of slowness for
    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1217.html system!

  8. Routers by scubamage · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone interested in investing in my new patented(pending) salt-based router technology?

    1. Re:Routers by infinite9 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I certainly am. A DDOS attack would look like a bad horror movie.

      --
      Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
  9. Re:I'm worried... by scubamage · · Score: 4, Funny

    Layer 4 snail protocols are in charge of resending lost snails. Obviously.

  10. mail by SirusTV · · Score: 4, Funny

    Neither rain nor snow nor sleet, but salt? Oh man.

  11. Re:I'm worried... by Nef · · Score: 3, Funny

    African or European?

  12. Re:This needs an RFC by mysqlrocks · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can see it coming already: TCP/IP over snails.

    Even better: Snails on Rails.

    --
    Bradley Holt
  13. Traceroute by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just follow the slime.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  14. Should have called it S-Mail by Ackmo · · Score: 5, Funny

    That way, when they start shipping packages, they could call it S-Cargo.