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Old Digital vs. Sneakernet Race

Data transfer race
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This is a race wherein the rules are carefully crafted to create a competitive race between a digital data transfer team and a short sprint race to find out which method might be faster. The running lengths, data transfer method and technology, baud rates, etc. can be tailored to keep the race close.

A dial-up modem with a 90's tech baud rate with all dial-in steps required, vs. a fast runner with a USB stick or a couple of floppy disks to transfer a 15 meg set of files to a 486 computer at the finish line.

RayfordSteele, Jun 11 2021

Royal Navy Field Gun Race https://www.youtube...watch?v=6lhx6Q3WuvU
I'm kind of reminded of this where a team of trained technicians post an entire field gun through a letterbox under race conditions. [zen_tom, Jun 11 2021]

When - if ever - will the bandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx? https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/
[bs0u0155, Jun 11 2021]

[link]






       "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."   

       It hurts me that without the possibility of real network cabling, a USB drive is still the quickest way to get data upstairs in my house. My lab moves data back and forth to Switzerland with 10TB drives in FedEx boxes.
bs0u0155, Jun 11 2021
  

       Is the data actually used in Switzerland or is this just an extreme kind of off-site backup?
pocmloc, Jun 11 2021
  

       //extreme kind of off-site backup?//   

       Ha! No, the data comes from a 3D electron microscope in Switzerland, then we take advantage of low US labor rates to do analysis. There's no off site backup. Research grants mandate you keep data for a certain number of years, but assign no budget to that. Institutionally, they don't want to touch dangerous non group policy machines, let alone fund anything. So, only RAID 5 stands between 15 years of research data and the abyss.
bs0u0155, Jun 11 2021
  

       "Bugs kill RAID... dead."
RayfordSteele, Jun 11 2021
  

       //It hurts me//   

       back in about 2007, I used to get database backups (and sometimes entire VMs) sent on CDs from the UK to Australia, essentially because of timeouts on ftp servers. I now know about other ways I could have got around this (filezilla would probably have done the trick), but I remember the sheer embarrassment that this was happening.
pertinax, Jun 12 2021
  

       Baudy building?   

       Instead of a starter's pistol, the go! signal could be the part of the sound of an old dial-up modem where it goes "bi-dum bi-dum".
zen_tom, Jun 16 2021
  
      
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