100 Years Ago, No Free Broadband Pneumatic Tubes 293
TheSync writes "The Division of Labour blog spotlights a report written 100 years ago by a commission appointed by the Postmaster General, that came to the conclusion: 'That it is not feasible and desirable at the present time for the Government to purchase, to install, or to operate pneumatic tubes.' Here is a scan of the original NYTimes article. If only we had gotten the free government Intertubes in 1908!"
So... (Score:5, Funny)
The steampunk Intertubes (Score:4, Funny)
Here's [today.com] a picture by Joi Ito [tinyurl.com] of a mechanical router, on display in a Tokyo museum. The engine of the steampunk Internet. Imagine BBs being pumped through the series of pneumatic tubes. "ROUTER BLOWOUT! SEVEN SYSADMINS SHOT DEAD BY THEIR ANALYTICAL ENGINES!"
If you're browsing with Chrome, don't forget to click the special page about:internets [about].
No I wouldn't... (Score:3, Funny)
But I do wish Debian would take it off their list of supported architectures. I want a new stable by New Years!
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Funny)
The Romans certainly had the engineering ability to connect their empire with a series of semaphore towers; the only thing wanting was the idea. You can imagine how history would have been different if it had occurred to them.
Yes, IP over Flag Semaphore would have quickly become bogged down with people downloading mosaics over bittorrent.