Talk:Sneakernet

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I use sneakernet (thanks to Macomb Community College's public computer lab with non-diskless workstations) as a cheap substitute for residential Internet access.


Would it be a good idea to have a table of the bandwidth of certain Sneakernets ? If this is a crazy idea tell me so .. but just how fast *is* a "...station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."? --2mcm 22:54, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Assuming that the average packing case of DDS tapes can carry 20 tapes, and a yank tank station wagon can carry about 10 packing cases, you could have 20x10x36GB of data transferred. 7,200GB. Now, assuming your house and your ISP are about 5 miles away, taking about 15 minutes of journey time, you could move 7,200GB in 15 minutes, or 8 megabits a second. However, a ping return would take 30 minutes.
And thats not counting the time to write the tapes, load the car, unload the car, read the tapes back in, etc...
Kiand 19:32, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
would that be 8 Giga bytes a second ? kcalc says 7200GB/15/60 = 8GB/s --2mcm 09:27, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Courier

Should we make a see also or take up Courier?

Perhaps a link in the prose might be better than a "see also". --Damian Yerrick (serious | business) 14:52, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Are we serious?

I was expecting something more along the lines of "physically carrying data between computers, sometimes also humorously referred to as sneakernet", and then I get this dead serious article instead.

It is a good article though, nice work. But my question: Do people actually seriously use the term sneakernet to refer to carrying data around?

I would have thought that at least references to hacker culture and to the term's origin as a joke would be the first thing you see.

Anyway, I'll put in a reference to Hacker culture, fix the reference to Jargon File, and such. Hmm, should I link to the Jargon File entry or just include it? It's short. I'll just link to it for now.

-- magetoo 10:09, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Three suggestions for the page, though I'm not really a wikipediazen, so I don't (yet) feel comfortable editing the page directly.

First, yes, people do "seriously" use the term sneakernet; it's succint and clearly expresses the idea of hand-carrying data via physical media. Of course we all know the joke and the origin of the term.

Second, moving data by sneakernet (I can't quite bring myself to use "sneakernetting") is quite common in large corporation environments, which tend to have their networks extremely locked down at the average user level, and tend to be quite uptight and likely to react out of proportion to attempts to get around such control. Fortunately, USB thumb drives are quite common, these days. Sooner or later I'm going to cut one open and install it in a little plastic sneaker...

Third, the "station wagon full of mag tapes" quote is much older than 1996. Tannenbaum's book has an original printing in 1985, which is also the year I first read the quote - as output from the Unix fortune program, in the form "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of mag tapes". Not sure which came first, the book or the fortune, or whether it's truly Tannenbaum's quote or somebody else (though Tannenbaum certainly is the right sort of person in the right sort of time and place to be the originator).

Steven J. Owens


To echo Mr. Owens, yes people do use the term sneakernet including official government documents and procedures which requrie the use of removable media data transfer. No longer a 'hacker' term, it has been approved for use by US Gov.

NetButch

-- I still use the term sneakernet, though I've always written it as 'sneaker net'. This has got to be one of the greatest wiki entries I've seen in a long while. The seriousness of the entry (as it should be) is so deadpan, I find it totally hilarious.

PunkFloyd 17:55, 11 October 2007 (UTC) --


Even if people DO use the term sneakernet in professionally environments, the many references to people "sneakernetting" data to thier friends are out of place. A common user shareing a file over a usb key isn't consiously deciding to sneakernet data like the article implies. It would be better written if the article cited places where protocol called for a sneaker net (such as these gov. procedures) and times when an avereage joe would chose to "sneakernet" such as the high/low bandwidth work/home duality. But saying that people have been using tem for ages (even when most people didn't have access to internet connections....) seems like your putting actions into peoples sneakers. They weren't/aren't sneakernetting, they're jsut giving thier buddy a picture.

Also perhaps we should mention that the Wikipedia CDs are an example of a sneakernet —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.164.41.186 (talk) 17:37, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] TCP (Transmission by carrier pigeon)

http://www.notes.co.il/benbasat/5240.asp


[edit] Sneakernet in Minority Report

A bit esoteric, but this mock memo inspired by Minority Report and response offer an insightful hypothetical justification of a sneakernet:

Memo from Lily Wong of Wong and Associates Industrial Design Consulting Group

In Response to Your Memo by Rich Thomas

Tatwell 23:42, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] precision

I would like some precise information where the article needs copy-editing. I would like to refrain from copying it right now because I want to take part in its assessment process. --Click me! 15:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Here's a sourced quote, in case anyone cares to use it:

sneakernet n. Term used (generally with ironic intent) for transfer of electronic information by physically carrying tape, disks, or some other media from one machine to another. "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magtape, or a 747 filled with CD-ROMs." Also called 'Tennis-Net', 'Armpit-Net', 'Floppy-Net', or 'Shoenet'.

[1] E. S. Raymond, Ed., The New Hacker's Dictionary, 3rd ed. , Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996.

I'm using IEEE citation style, since that's what I'm used to. Evanturner (talk) 20:59, 9 February 2008 (UTC)