Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 04:11:31 -0500
Subject: Re: Unix and model railroading.
Status: R

In alt.religion.kibology, pjsmith40@hotmail.com wrote:

"Xcott Craver" <sacraver@GiantH.BrainHz.com> wrote in message
news:slrna0k594.8ei.sacraver@GiantH.BrainHz.com...
> Joe Manfre <manfre@flash.net> wrote:
> >
> > Is there anyone with any ideas on combining Unix with model railroading
> > to create the ultimate Nerdy-Guy-Who-Will-Never-Have-A-Girlfriend-Again
> > hobby?
>
> You could create the slowest webserver in the entire world.
> When someone requests a page, the train travels to the
> page factory up in the mountains, carts the sucker back on
> a flatbed car, and drops it into a hopper that transmits its
> contents to your computer over the parallel port.

That sounds suspiciously like a subplot in a future Iain M Banks Culture
story, where some playful Mind decides to implement a packet switching
network using mortars and snooker balls just because it can.

Did you know that Prague has a model railway they use for delivering email?

OK, so you run ether packets through the tracks, and the packet routing and
the train routing compete for WHO IS MASTER. Sometimes the 2:15 from
Paddington ends up in Alnmouth because someone was using Napsterclone,
sometimes your Quake pingtime lags because of a points failure near Crewe.
You could broadcast error messages through a fuzzy tannoy to complete the
effect. This idea for stealing.

Incidentally, could you use an actual proper railway as a radio telescope?
Anyone know?


Paddy