This is why I love being a techie

[Rutabegger]

In 1990, David Waitzman wrote RFC 1149, a tongue-in-cheek standard for using pigeons to transfer information using the Internet Protocol (IP). On Saturday, a group of Linux enthusiasts in Bergen, Norway, succeeded in exchanging some data using the Carrier Pigeon Internet Protocol (CPIP).

The group transmitted a “ping” command, among the most basic operations of the Internet, in which one computer sends a signal to another, which in turn signals that it is attached to the network. In the experiment, packets of network data were printed on paper then attached to pigeons’ legs. Upon their arrival at the destination, the data was transferred to the computer using optical character recognition software.

The Bergen Linux Users Group had some assistance from the Vesta Brevdueforening carrier pigeon club and Alan Cox, a programmer at Linux leader Red Hat and top deputy of Linux founder Linus Torvalds.

The pigeon protocol didn’t mean the fastest of networks, though. Taking an hour and 42 minutes to transfer a 64-byte packet of information makes the pigeon network about 5 trillion times slower than today’s cutting-edge 40 gigabit-per-second optical fiber networks.

[Sunspace]

Yeah, it’s doable, but it’ll never get off the ground commercially. I mean, there’s just no protection against packet loss and predation. You’d have to put so much redundancy into the upper-level protocols that you’d lose all the advantages of CPIP’s free-space propagation…

[Skelji]

Don’t underestimate the problems of dropped “packets”, particularly those that land on car windshields.

[Why_A_Duck]

Anf of course it’s impossible to send a plate of prawns over pigeons.

[Fredge]

Here’s an implentation of RFC 1149 with pictures included.

[Dragwyr]

*Originally posted by Sunspace *
**Yeah, it’s doable, but it’ll never get off the ground commercially. **

ROFLMAO!!! I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but it was darn funny!

[Fredge]

*Originally posted by Dire Wolf *
**Don’t underestimate the problems of dropped “packets”, particularly those that land on car windshields. **

That’s not a ‘problem’. That’s the audit trail!