Real Snail Mail

A few news outlets, mostly in the UK, have picked up the story of gastropod-enabled email delivery. The RealSnailMail project out of Bournemouth University uses snails with RFID tags to deliver email. The service will officially launch at SIGGRAPH on August 11, 2008. While it's still under development, the perpetrators write, "For testing purposes some messages may be forwarded sooner than expected. Sorry we can not guarantee unreliability of service at this time. We hope to have RealSnailMail working less predictably as soon as possible."

That was definitely...

[Manfre (631065)]

research time well spent.

Re:That was definitely...

[sm62704 (957197)]

Research? Well I don't know but some good art came from it. Siggraph is computer-generated art. From TFA:

Our snails are equipped with a miniaturised electronic circuit and antenna that enables them to be assigned messages from hardware located within their enclosure. The moment you click 'send' your message will travel at the speed of light to our snail server where it will await collection by a snail agent.

Once associated with the tiny electronic chip on the snails shell your message will be carried around until the snail chances by the drop off point. Hardware located at this point collects the message from the snail and forwards it to its final destination.

My old art instructors would certainly approve. This approaches Dada.

Re:That was definitely...

[Gewalt (1200451)]

Gives new meaning to digesting RSS feeds. Would you like garlic with that?

Re:That was definitely...

[JustOK (667959)]

and salt is all you'd need for a firewall

Re:

[Xyrus (755017)]

Packets would need to be routed around France.

~X~

Re:That was definitely...

[Red Flayer (890720)]

Just be careful with your shell scripts.

Particularly your bash shell scripts, or you might end up scraping goo for a few minutes.

Re:

[JWSmythe (446288)]

    I'd prefer a perl script myself. It may be worth something. :)

Re:

[asliarun (636603)]

Gives new meaning to digesting RSS feeds. Would you like garlic with that?

A much better protocol implementation would have been to teach the snails to drive, and then equip them with a fleet of Mercedes.

Besides the latency improvement, you would have the satisfaction of hearing people say, "Dude, look at that S-car go"

(shamelessly ripped from Callahans)

Re:

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

I for one welcome our slow moving, slime generating, information overlords.

Information underloads if anything.

Obligatory

[bgillespie (1228056)]

Bit of a slow day on Slashdot, isn't it?

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'd say it's almost a sluggish news day.

Soo....

[Drathos (1092)]

Can lost packets be partially attributed to interference from RFC 1149 [ietf.org]?

See RFC1217...

[Cyberax (705495)]

Snails should be just another layer of slowness for
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1217.html [faqs.org] system!

Re:

[FinchWorld (845331)]

I considered this system using good old pigeons, packets could potentially be sent very quickly, and as there is a great number of pigeons available, the bandwidth could be quite massive, however the system was just too unreliable. Many packets were lost, but not due to pigeons getting lost, but mainly by hawks eating the pigeons, causing packets to be dropped.

Then my friend had a great idea, use hawks as the transmission medium. Nothing hunts these hawks, and once trained hardly ever get lost, making a ve

Enterprise technologies

[suck_burners_rice (1258684)]

This is great news! As the CIO of a well known Fortune 500 company, I can envision some innovative global solutions built on this compelling technology.

Re:Enterprise technologies

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

This is great news! As the CIO of a well known Fortune 500 company, I can envision some innovative global solutions built on this compelling technology.

I can envision your Fortune 500 company soon transitioning to the Fortune 500,000.

Re:

[kmsigel (306018)]

The CIO of a Fortune 500 company has a 7 digit UID? Man, I'm getting old.

This needs an RFC

[Cassini2 (956052)]

I can see it coming already: TCP/IP over snails. A follow up to RFC-1149 A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers. [ietf.org]

I'm worried...

[LoyalOpposition (168041)]

What happens if the pigeons eat the snails?

-Loyal

Re:I'm worried...

[scubamage (727538)]

Layer 4 snail protocols are in charge of resending lost snails. Obviously.

Re:

[sentientbeing (688713)]

Then you wait under a tree for an air mail drop.

Re:

[UncleTogie (1004853)]

What happens if the pigeons eat the snails?

Actually, I'd find it more disturbing if the snails ate the pigeons....

Re:

[Nef (46782)]

African or European?

Re:

[Yvan256 (722131)]

I don't know that!

Re:This needs an RFC

[mysqlrocks (783488)]

I can see it coming already: TCP/IP over snails.

Even better: Snails on Rails.

phew

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Good thing this is only in the UK, otherwise the USPS might start getting worried about the competition.

Re:

[drpimp (900837)]

And good thing it's not in France, those lil boogers might get eaten and emails would be lost in a series of tubes. Intestinal tubes that is!

Re:

[Inda (580031)]

The competition can be effectively stifled with Metaldehyde [wikipedia.org]. I like Metaldehyde.

Re:

[MBCook (132727)]

OK. Someone really needs to get a few hundred large snails (~postage stamp sized shell sides), paint USPS logos on the shell sides, and drop them in front of about a dozen popular post offices some morning.

I would love to see that on the morning news.

I wonder if Improv Everywhere could source a few hundred giant snail outfits?

Looks not quite what they say

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

Most everything seems to imply that the snails actually carry the message, but the fact that the snails carry RFID chips, and that one of the developers actually says the messages are tagged when a snail wanders nearby, makes me think that the actual message does indeed travel electronically only, and all the snail does is induce an artificial (albeit organic and biodegradeable) delay.

Re:Looks not quite what they say

[eln (21727)]

Well, they tried to get the snails to carry the actual message, but it turns out the snails couldn't reliably copy it because not only do they lack hands, but their penmanship is atrocious.

Attempts to get the snails to carry the emails in their internal memory were likewise unsuccessful because the snails lacked the ability to reliably retrieve the message from memory or communicate it effectively at the other end. Indeed, it was never really possible to determine if the messages were actually maintained in the snail's memory at all, even after repeated attempts to store them there. The snails did, however, form an inexplicable appetite for discount v1AgR@, so further study may be warranted.

Re:

[kat_skan (5219)]

The snails did, however, form an inexplicable appetite for discount v1AgR@, so further study may be warranted.

This is an excellent example of the difference between "warranted" and "advisable".

Re:

[Kingrames (858416)]

They couldn't help optimizing transfer speed just a bit.

It's addictive, man.

Cool

[hurfy (735314)]

I was just looking for a new way to implement a tech support queue around here......

I though it was Royal Snail Mail

[Bill, Shooter of Bul (629286)]

I mean its the UK. Shouldn't the snails all have mini crowns?

Kinda slow...

[VickiM (920888)]

I read about this a little while back on BBC, I'm pretty sure. Maybe the submitter used the service for his submission? :)

good way to deal with spam

[circletimessquare (444983)]

if you load the message queue with spam, the packets tend to bottleneck around the spam until the spam in the queue is exhausted

on the plus side the spam tends to be consumed rather than multiply

however, the message trail only gets slimier during and after spam bottlenecking

Routers

[scubamage (727538)]

Anyone interested in investing in my new patented(pending) salt-based router technology?

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Well, it isn't much of a router as much as it is a heck of a good firewall. I can definitely see those packets dropping right at the edge there. If you do manage to perfect it, you are encouraged to present your findings at the Southern Linux User Group.

Re:

[jo7hs2 (884069)]

We've been selling a salt-based packet shaper for years.

Re:Routers

[infinite9 (319274)]

I certainly am. A DDOS attack would look like a bad horror movie.

mail

[SirusTV (1001138)]

Neither rain nor snow nor sleet, but salt? Oh man.

No snails were harmed ...

[Ungrounded Lightning (62228)]

And as a gardener I have only one word to say about that.

Darn!

Traceroute

[PPH (736903)]

Just follow the slime.

Should have called it S-Mail

[Ackmo (700165)]

That way, when they start shipping packages, they could call it S-Cargo.

Overhead

[JustOK (667959)]

Snails? Stupid idea. Too much overhead. They carry their homes with them. Use slugs instead.

Given the way ISPs are being strongarmed

[damburger (981828)]

I think this is probably the safest way to torrent in the UK these days

But...

[aj50 (789101)]

do they offer tracking?

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...

[SnarfQuest (469614)]

...Gaaaa! That's disgusting!

Re:

[6Yankee (597075)]

By the time my v1a6r4 spam gets to me, I'll be old enough to be interested!