Pigeon Found to be Faster Than Broadband

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ColMirage

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By the time Winston reached his destination, only 4 percent of the file had transferred. The BBC report does not specify the full size of the file, but did say that Winston completed his journey in 1 hour and 8 minutes, while the internet transfer required an additional hour to complete.

Wait, what? So the file was uploaded by only 4% in One hour 8 minutes, and the remaining 96% of the file needed only one hour to complete? That's some weird reliability.
 

JeanLuc

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Wildlife FTW!

If I was the boss of that ISP I would walk around with a paper bag over my head, I doubt I could live with the shame of losing to centuries old technology.
 

jellico

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Think we could mount a small SSD on one of those birdies? If so, we might have something there. Of course, if a pigeon gets lots, shot down, killed by a predator, etc... that amounts to a WHOLE lot of packet loss!
 

Major7up

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This appeared on Wired.com hours ago with more info:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/in-africa-a-pigeon-transfers-data-faster-than-the-internet/

They say in the Wired bit that (including xfer of file to usb stick etc) that it took a total of 2 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds and that by that time only 4% had been transferred. There had been no comment from Telkom at that time and they also do not indicate where the destination office is located. I would bet though that the 'improvement options' offered by Telkom would not help an infrastructure problem taht it is likely to be.
 
G

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Be sure to feed the pigeons well and give them a dose of laxative before beginning the DDoS

Let the DDos begin [l](to the tune of Plop, plop, fiz, fiz, oh what a relief it is)[/l]

Break out the Umbrellas!
 

icepick314

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this is the website by the company who tested carrier pigeon ISP...

http://pigeonrace2009.co.za/

also has map route and much more information regarding the "race"...
 

Major7up

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I did find that it was between Howick and Durban but could not get Google to calculate the distance. Even so, using the scale and measuring, you'd get at least 30 miles maybe more like 40. In any case, that pigeon would have to fly at least 15 miles and hour to make it in the time indicated. Seems reasonable to me that it is accurate. But what I don't quite get is where the other hour came in exactly. we do know that they had to xfer the file to the stick which takes moments and then attach it to the pigeon. But did they have to drive somewhere else locally to do that...to send him off? And did they need to pick it up offsite at the other end? How does the pigeon know where his destination is?
 

doomtomb

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This doesn't make sense....
By the time Winston reached his destination, only 4 percent of the file had transferred. The BBC report does not specify the full size of the file, but did say that Winston completed his journey in 1 hour and 8 minutes, while the internet transfer required an additional hour to complete.
Basic math please? 1 hour and 8 minutes to complete 4% but required an additional hour to complete. More like it requires 20 more hours!
 

kittle

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Aparently its a 4GB file that was being transfered.
so im guessing the other hour was for upload and download of the file from the memory stick.

goto the website above and click on "pigeon race 2009"
 

Major7up

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But the infrastructure that those servers use to transfer data is the real bottleneck here. What they really need is an FIOS link since the article (one of them) mentioned that they do this everyday (xfer files that is, not necessarily by pigeon).
 

Supertrek32

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Let's assume the file he was trying to transfer was the full 4GB. It took 68 minutes (4080 seconds) to transfer 4%, or 167772KB. That's about 41 KB/s - which is actually a faster upload rate than what most people get from their ISP. Telkom tries to blame the company, but it's actually the ridiculously low upload caps ISPs impose on their customers.
 
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