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SA's Largest Telecomms Provider vs. a Pigeon

Posted by samzenpus on from the may-the-best-bird-win dept.

dagwud writes "Just a few days after this Slashdot article, South Africa's largest telecoms provider, Telkom (which has been taking flak for years for its shoddy and overpriced service), is being pitted against a homing pigeon to see which can deliver 4GB of call centre data logs quickest over a distance of around 80km (50 miles). According to the official website, the race is set to take place September 10."

7 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Homers rule! by certain+death · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if they will be using an RFC compliant pigeon... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

    --
    "My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
    1. Re:Homers rule! by Aim+Here · · Score: 2, Insightful

      From TFA:

      Anyway I read a Aprils fools white paper about Avian carrier networks a couple of years ago. Basically it is a protocol that uses racing pigeons as a network layer.

      So in all probabilities, yes, it's an RFC1149 compliant pigeon.

  2. Real time of sneaker net by Anonymous+Cowar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    will they be counting the time it takes to get the data from the computer, put it on the 4gb media, strap it to the bird, send it off, retrieve it, and load it onto the end computer or will they just do a door-to-door race?

    RTFA? ME? Do you know what site you're reading?

    1. Re:Real time of sneaker net by AndGodSed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well the "get the data to the pigeon" is probably a moot point since you can release the pigeon from right next to the laptop where you will be sending the data from. Also you can start the send the moment you start uploading the data to a memory drive. 4gb should not take that long to load onto a newish flash disk...

      And then the pigeon will probably land next to the laptop receiving the data.

      And, come to think of it, who says the data via pigeon needs to be computer to computer? If a sysadmin receives it, it is received no?

      Whatever, I root for the pigeon.

      --

      Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

  3. Re:The question is... by LaminatorX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would assume African, given the locale.

  4. The Pigeon Cannot Win... by manoova · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No doubt Telkom will dig up some arcane legislation whereby it is illegal to pit a pigeon against this heavily state-funded telecoms provider. Further, the people organising this will be served legal papers from ICASA ordering them to cease their operations immediately. After many years of lawsuits (and counter-lawsuits) it will be deemed that the organisers do actually have a right to strap USB sticks to pigeons but by that time Telekom will have bred flocks of the creatures thereby preventing any meaningful and productive competition.

  5. Reminds me of the quote... by mrops · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't underestimate the throughput of a wagon full of data tapes speeding down a freeway.