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]

research time well spent.

Re:That was definitely...

[sm62704]

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:

[sm62704]

It's art. One of my instructors in college was fond of saying "I don't know what I like, but I know what art is".

Dada is an anti-art art; or rather more of an anti-art establishment art. Marcel Duchamp [wikipedia.org] once hung a urinal on an art gallery wall, and the critics (successful critics in any field are never antiestablishment) praised it for its form and beauty.

One installation in the 1920s was busted by the police. It consisted of a bare room with a woman clothed only in a hat and shoes who stood in the center o

Re:That was definitely...

[Gewalt]

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

Re:That was definitely...

[JustOK]

and salt is all you'd need for a firewall

Re:

[Xyrus]

Packets would need to be routed around France.

~X~

Re:

[Zemran]

No change there then...

Re:That was definitely...

[Red Flayer]

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]

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

Re:

[asliarun]

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:

[Dishevel]

I for one welcome our slow moving, slime generating, information overlords. Had to do it.

Re:

[A nonymous Coward]

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

Information underloads if anything.

Re:

[BluBrick]

No, you didn't.

Obligatory

[bgillespie]

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

Re:

[Manfre]

That explains how I managed to get the first comment in.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Seriously?

[daveatneowindotnet]

And performance artist wonder why they get laughed at?

Re:

[sm62704]

And performance artist wonder why they get laughed at?

Cluebat: not all art is supposed to be serious.

Soo....

[Drathos]

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

See RFC1217...

[Cyberax]

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

Re:

[FinchWorld]

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

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

We need an RFC for snails.

In Sweden they just made a new law giving their government the right to listen to almost all communication going in to and out of the country. But the law only gives FRA the right to listen to communications if wired or over radio.

To get around the "pidgin hole", I have heard that the swedish defense forces are going to kill all birds crossing their border.

To protect the pidgins and the environment (and secondary the right of private communications for the people in Sweden) w

Enterprise technologies

[suck_burners_rice]

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]

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:

[Icarium]

Well, in business bigger numbers are better, right?

Re:

[kmsigel]

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

This needs an RFC

[Cassini2]

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]

What happens if the pigeons eat the snails?

-Loyal

Re:I'm worried...

[scubamage]

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

Re:

[sentientbeing]

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

Re:

[UncleTogie]

What happens if the pigeons eat the snails?

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

Re:

[Nef]

African or European?

Re:

[Yvan256]

I don't know that!

Re:

[Nef]

\/\/000005]-[!

Re:

[Nathrael]

Ew, it was about time for those classic-mail carrying animals to strike back at us evil e-mail-users for getting them out of business.

Re:This needs an RFC

[mysqlrocks]

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

Even better: Snails on Rails.

Re:

[pisto_grih]

I have had it with these motherfucking sna...

Re:

[kiehlster]

And then we can develop our ASAX applications! Then /.ers can mod up posts in transit by coaxing the more interesting snails to arrive first.

Re:

[LancupadMQ]

How about Ruby on Snails?

phew

[gEvil (beta)]

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

Re:

[drpimp]

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]

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

Re:

[MBCook]

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]

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]

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]

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:

[SleptThroughClass]

Do you have a warrant to study the v1AgR@?

Re:

[RealGrouchy]

Really? I've had great success sending attachments to my messages.

Then again, I've only tested with sending snails as attachments...

- RG>

Re:

[Kingrames]

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

It's addictive, man.

Delayed

[electricbern]

The service will officially launch at SIGGRAPH on August 11, 2008.
It will probably be delayed.

Cool

[hurfy]

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

Re:

[Xanius]

That'd make for one hell of a hold message.
" We appreciate your business, but not enough to answer your call in the order it was received, instead we're going to dick around until one of the snails in our cage manages to make a circuit between notification areas. We hope you rot in hell for being stupid and have a wonderful day."

I though it was Royal Snail Mail

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

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

Kinda slow...

[VickiM]

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]

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]

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

Re:

[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]

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

Re:Routers

[infinite9]

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

Path

[jon159785]

What gives the snails direction? How does the snail know where to deliver to? Or is it random if they just happen to wander by the right place?

Re:

[Socguy]

It's random. One one side of the snail tank is an encoder that will 'fill' an empty RFID glued to a snail when it passes by (really close I would guess), and on the other side of the tank is a receiver that 'empties' the RFID and sends the message on its way. Judging by the food comment later in the article, the designer may encourage movement between the two points by placing food near both the locations, however, that is speculation on my part. In the end it is totally random with the athleticism of on

RFC2549 Redux

[Obsi]

This seems to me to be in the spirit of RFC 2549 [faqs.org], "IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service". I should suggest this as an idea for the AF09 RFC.

I wonder how the speed compares to 2549-compliant methods of delivery?

mail

[SirusTV]

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

MAILER-DAEMON-SUN-FAILURE......

[Anonymous Coward]

Please try resending mail on cloudy day

Spam problem

[hkz]

Finally a failproof solution for spam! The French will gladly take care of that one for us.

Re:

[6Yankee]

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

No snails were harmed ...

[Ungrounded Lightning]

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

Darn!

Call me old fashioned

[Haoie]

But there are few things as rewarding as getting a hand written letter in the mail.

Especially if delivered by a snail? Well, maybe not.

Traceroute

[PPH]

Just follow the slime.

Should have called it S-Mail

[Ackmo]

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

Re:

[Grendel70]

Damn. And on a day when I don't have any mod points. Made me spit coffee out of my nose.

Security concerns

[scottymuse]

Are there any encryption options and can someone insert an extra tagging/receiving node in the path that could perform a MITM attack?

Head-to-head

[easyTree]

Someone should set-up a head-to-head with 'slow'hosts - my money's on the snails.

Snails will DIE!

[VoxMagis]

I hope none of these snails have any implanted medical devices - the death rate could be terrible!

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/24/2152212 [slashdot.org]

I predict

[jalet]

a lot of packets lost if they route them through France...

Overhead

[JustOK]

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

Given the way ISPs are being strongarmed

[damburger]

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

But...

[aj50]

do they offer tracking?

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...

[SnarfQuest]

...Gaaaa! That's disgusting!

RealSnailMail brought to its knees...

[PottedMeat]

by zero day DBS (Denial By Salt) attack.

More details

[K.os023]

from the linked Real Snail Mail blog:

Each snail is equipped with a small glass capsule attached to its shell. The capsule contains a tiny chip and coil antenna that can be activated by a reader at a range of 3 cm.

FIRST POST!!??

[Tmack]

I think, but the latency on these things is horrible!

Tm

My new ISP

[archont]

At least it doesn't block torrent traffic.

More horrors...

[professorfalcon]

And I thought they couldn't make backscatter [wikipedia.org] any more horrible.

Ka-Boom!

[Hobbs114]

It's a good thing the site hasn't fully launched or the /. effect would have blown those little snails to pieces!