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Cuba's Nationwide Sneakernet: a Model For Developing Nations?
lpress writes: Cuba has little Internet infrastructure, but they have a well-organized sneaker net called El Paquete Semanal (the weekly packet). El Paquete distributes a terabyte of digital entertainment nationwide every week using portable drives. The system is reliable and the organization is said to be Cuba's largest private employer, but it is technically illegal and the content is pirated. A legitimatized Paquete would save scarce Internet resources for other applications. El Paquete is also a possible model for other developing nations.
Vox has a short documentary about the system.
Why on earth would anyone think this is illegal? There are a lot of things that are wacky wrong in Cuba, but copying 1s and 0s without fear of some artificial scarcity punishment is not one of them.
Dude, please stop. It is a dictatorship. Of course it is closed. Be relevant. Pretty please. Cherry on top.
Socialism is always a dictatorship - for some.
You're free to argue that run-away capitalism make it so to because of inequality and the huge difference in capability.
"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon loaded with backup tapes"
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
thieves ? really just how do they deprive you of your 0 and 1's ? they just create a new instant copy.
Tell us how Jamaica, their capitalist neighbour, is faring any better.
It is a dictatorship. Of course it is closed.
Not all dictatorships are closed. Pinochet may have tortured, imprisoned, or shot all his opponents, but he also opened Chile's economy, championed free trade, and created broad prosperity.
Right, all you need to do is buy automated drones which can recharge themselves automatically, and carry a payload. And others that can distribute solar powered WiFi nodes. I could do it for about $20 million. Or I could hire a guy with sneakers and a pickup truck.
What particular freedoms would capitalism bring to Cuba? The freedom for Cubans to starve to death? The freedom to be exploited by an extra-national entity (or entities) rather than one of their own? Capitalism can only succeed for everyone when it is in chains, i.e. actively restrained from achieving its worst excesses, whereby it becomes a ravening monster that eats or destroys all in its path. Rich laissez-faire capitalists are slavemasters and poor laissez-faire capitalists are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
Cuba is not a tiny island. It's about half the size of Great Britain and is the 17th largest island in the world.
Or a FedEx plane full of MicroSD cards.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
According to the Human Development Index, Cuba, at 67th place is somewhat ahead of Jamaica, at 99th. Both places are ahead of where I live, though I think we're vastly ahead on the internet development index.
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
This whole operation is based on meeting people face to face and trusting them to be generous. That's the kind of trust-thy-neighbor attitude which is largely dying out in richer countries. We've become so rich that we don't need to cultivate neighborly kindness. When we want something, we just get it ourselves, whether it's through wires, Amazon or an SUV trip to the store. I wouldn't want these opportunities to go away, but at the same time, I sometimes think that our wealth has brought us too much self-reliance. We've forgotten what it's like to actually rely on the kindness of strangers, and I we hardly many opportunities to show strangers our kindness.