IP Replaces Avian Carriers 87
m0rningstar writes: "In the spirit of the IP over Avian Carriers RFC, India is considering replacing a carrier pigeon network with e-mail according to this story at the BBC."
"If I do not want others to quote me, I do not speak." -- Phil Wayne
All of the out of work pigeons..... (Score:5, Funny)
No no no, you got it all wrong... (Score:2)
Re:All of the out of work pigeons..... (Score:3, Funny)
You know the sort of thing: "I'm not racist, but how are we supposed to compete? Some of them are prepared to work for chickenfeed."
Re:All of the out of work pigeons..... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:All of the out of work pigeons..... (Score:1)
Heh. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Heh. (Score:1)
The Joke (Score:1)
BTW Go see Monsoon Wedding! Great film, I want the soundtrack to that one on surround :]
Re:Heh. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm thinking this one was put up today as a sort of "Meta-Fool". It's an April Fools joke precisely because there will be lots of "It's just a stupid joke" posts on this thread, when the story is actually true. Very clever, good social engineering (knowing the geek penchant for scepticism and knowitallitis).
Maybe I'm giving the eds too much credit, tho'.
The RFC's (Score:4, Informative)
If you haven't already read them (where HAVE you been?):
A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers [isi.edu]
IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service [isi.edu]
Better http links (Score:2, Informative)
IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service [rfc-editor.org]
Faster, lower latency.
Not a joke! (Score:5, Informative)
Here's an older story [bbc.co.uk] about the same thing.
Re:Not a joke! (Score:1)
H1-Bs (Score:2, Funny)
You know the sort of thing: "I'm not racist, but how are we supposed to compete? Some of them are prepared to work for chickenfeed."
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:H1-Bs (Score:2, Funny)
So we geeks could be facing some stiff competition from the Indian-avian community. Time to bone up on those coding skills, folks. And remind your boss that they type by the hunt-and-peck method.
Excellent! (Score:4, Funny)
tech? (Score:2, Interesting)
redundant pigeons will be given to the state's wildlife
And what would they do with them? How would they keep them from _not_ returning?
Perhaps they'll take the stance my father encountered as a psych. grad student. When finshed experimenting, they just threw their test pigeons out the window. Being accustomed to life in a cage, the liberated pigeons hung out on the windows of the psych. lab trying to get back in.
Re:tech? (Score:1)
That's the idea - they want the pigeons to get lost.
Re:tech? (Score:1)
And what would they do with them? How would they keep them from _not_ returning?
Perhaps the pigeons will be given to the wildlife as a food supplement
e-mail cons (Score:2, Funny)
"OUTLOOK.EXE has caused and ilegal operation on 0e:03aabf"
They may use pigeons as backups when this occur...
Another pro of a pigeon: B_Gates will not have a clue of what your sending!
Sorry, couldnt resist it!!
Re:e-mail cons (Score:1)
Given the choice, I would much rather Outlook crap out on me than the pigeon.
Re:e-mail cons (Score:1)
Wow. (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe I'm just jaded and cynical, but give me something not only original, but believable.
Re:Wow. (Score:2, Informative)
I read this article a few days ago. It's no joke. The BBC doesn't have a sense of humour
BBC no humor? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wow. (Score:1, Flamebait)
-russ
Re:Wow. (Score:1)
And it even makes sense, actually...
Re:Wow. (Score:4, Insightful)
Except it's not a joke. Here's an old story [bbc.co.uk] from February of two years ago. But good job on the insulting airs of cynicism from someone so afraid they might look the tiniest bit silly by falling for a joke that feel the need to preemptively insult others. You've fallen for the best joke of all, sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.
Re:Wow. (Score:2)
Re:Wow. (Score:1)
Re:Wow. (Score:1)
Back in '99 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Back in '99 (Score:1)
64 octets from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.3 w
64 octets from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.2 w
64 octets from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.2 w
64 octets from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.1 w
64 octets from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=0.4 w
*loud sound of an ansgt employee with a blunt object and the back of my head*
^X^X^Z^X^Z^X
--- 10.0.0.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 22% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.2/0.3/0.4 w(weeks)
Carrier Pigeons for time when the phones are down? (Score:2, Insightful)
How exactly do they propose that email is going to help in this situation? If they have no phones, power or radio, how are they connecting to the Internet?
Re:Carrier Pigeons for time when the phones are do (Score:1)
Well, that's the whole point. IP-over-carrier-pigeon, remember?
Re:Carrier Pigeons for time when the phones are do (Score:1)
Re:Carrier Pigeons in Hurricanes (Score:1)
I think that they'd face a huge packet loss rate if they are using pigeons in a hurricane.
Actually, avian IP transmission schemes face some of the same limitations as token ring networks. You can only have a limited number of packets "on the fly" at any particular time. Each avian carrier is similar to a token. If it fails to reach its destination, the bandwidth of the entire network drops. Unless there is a pool (or "coop") of backup carriers, you would have to wait a considerable period for a new carrier to be created (or "hatched" as it is sometimes called by those running these types of networks).
Using this type of network in hurricane conditions virtually guarantees that you're going to lose all of your packet carriers. This will bring down your network completely, until the next brooding season.
This is Worrying. (Score:2)
I can't help thinking this is just change for change's sake, and that at some time in the future they'll regret it.
Ever heard of "solar power"? (Score:2)
Given the small size of today's amateur radio units, they can easily be powered by a set of solar arrays just in case regular power becomes unavailable.
Re:Ever heard of "solar power"? (Score:1)
I know! (Score:2)
Sometimes I could swear Hotmail works that way anyway, of course...
Those Pigeons... (Score:5, Funny)
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Pigeons are an unnappreciated species (Score:2)
Re:Pigeons are an unnappreciated species (Score:1)
It's not the pigeon overpopulation so much as the overpopulaton of litterbugs and other people who feed them. The do keep the bums busy though, eh?
"Tuppence for a window wash, guv?
Re:Pigeons are an unnappreciated species (Score:2, Informative)
Of course, some people consider rats an unappreciated species too.
Re:Pigeons are an unnappreciated species (Score:2)
Plus culls are worth 3 bucks apiece to dog trainers. Try getting that much for your crappy old WinModem!
IDS for IP over Avian Carrier (Score:1)
Dropped packets (Score:3, Funny)
Misleading title (Score:1)
FarHat
Most places are not well developed. (Score:1, Troll)
For people living in the U.S., it is easy to forget that most places in the world to not have a developed infrastructure.
Re:Most places are not well developed. (Score:5, Funny)
Funnily enough, I talking to someone about exactly the same thing earlier today when I was queueing to use the electric telephone at the Post and Telegraph Office, here in Spain. I was talking to an Australian who had spent the last four months on a sailship, poor man, on his way back to England to see his dying mother, who has the pox. I consoled him by telling him the rumours I'd heard about the United States of America - about rocket ships, robots, and flying cars, a place where children play happily in the streets without fear of nefarious wrongdoers, a place of happy and content people governed by the just and true. We both looked forward to a day when we could afford the passage to that great nation, a true paradise on earth.
Re:Most places are not well developed. (Score:1)
Re:Most places are not well developed. (Score:3, Informative)
Living in the U.S., Spain, England, or Australia, it is easy for us to forget:
20% of the people in the world go hungry every day.
Only a small percentage of people in the world have access to a telephone.
A large percentage do not have access to safe water.
Unfortunate (Score:1)
They should at least keep them for redundancy. $10k a year? Well worth it.
Could have been worse! (Score:2)
Good heavens they did not want to replace Email by Avian Carriers!
Think about it!
Biggest Threat to the Pigeon Service (Score:1)
Oops!! there goes my urgent message to the District Collector of Orissa.. Oh well..
I wonder how the pigeon keepers will react (Score:1)
Being an Indian, I know the strikes we have and the reasons for it. I just hope the pigeon keepers recieve pension ;)
The idea is great excluding the frequent disconnects , high call rates and an ISP that you can't trust. (I'm suffering from BSNL -- Bharath Sanchar Nigam Limited !)
If this happens, the unemployed... (Score:1)
Re:If this happens, the unemployed... (Score:1)
note to self: page ALL the way down.
Instant Messaging (Score:1)
Ugh... Please, help us... (Score:2)
Slash-dot day,
Of the year!"
Doing the pigeon every dayyy.. (Score:1)
This wouldn't have something to do with Sesame Street's Bert (recently revealed to be a Bin Laden ally in Bangladesh) and his fondness for pigeons, would it?
Soon, there will be no paper clips or oatmeal left on the entire Indian subcontinent. The grip of Al-Qaeda is closing in on India, one muppet at a time..
Bad idea... (Score:2)
Piegon vs Spam (Score:2)
This is a horrible idea. (Score:2)
Even in the world of high technology, one believes in the concept of a backup link. Sure, maybe you've got a full DS3 right into Qwest, but there's no guarantee it's always going to be up, either. The link could be severed physically, Qwest could get bombed - literally, or with packets... anything could happen. So maybe you have a T1 running into sprint or something - Sure, it wouldn't be your first choice, but maybe they gave you a great rate. And hell, you might even have a 128k frame relay to back THAT up, if you're serious, just to keep email going if everything else craters.
Similarly; In this case, they have internet, and their radio system, but what's your last resort? It is currently pigeons, in their case, and it appears that it will next be a human courier. In case of insurgency, of course, this becomes seriously impractical. No one is going to shoot every bird, but they WILL be on the lookout for people.
In addition, using modern technology (I understand that if the carrier pigeon program is rendering them bankrupt, they can't really afford modern technology, which is why they buy a bunch of our surplus electronics in India) allows a pigeon to carry quite a bit of data. An MMC card is small enough to attach to a pigeon; You could easily be sending 64MB packets. Very high latency, but pretty good bandwidth.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magtapes.
Hmm, maybe it's time for a "P" protocol for UUCP. You could easily batch your data and attempt to send it via carrier pigeon (during the day, when there are less predators to worry about, as opposed to the "G" protocol, which was handiest at night, when long-distance rates were at their lowest.)
they had to. (Score:1)
Can't have redundancy in the system (Score:1)
Isn't that the whole point? What kind of wide area communications backup system is going to cost less than $10k/year? The system obviously isn't obsolete since it was used as recently as 1999. I don't know 'bout y'all but I _want_ some redundancy in my government emergency communications network.
Indian version of SirCam (Score:1)
don`t laugh... (Score:2)
If they would kick out their bicyclist corps sometime soon, you might actually call them an army sometine soon.