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(Some Guy)		The bandwidth of a fully laden 747 (blog.jgc.org)		48
		More: Interesting, SETI, web services, jet, discs, underestimate, science and technology

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10199 clicks; posted to Geek » on 19 Jul 2010 at 8:27 PM | Favorite | share:

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curlinggod		2010-07-19 03:42:31 PM

Oh yeah, an African 747 maybe, but not a European 747. But then the African 747's not migratory...

Rickerkioz		2010-07-19 03:55:28 PM

someone just discovered wolfram alpha?

Thoguh		2010-07-19 04:24:28 PM

It's the latency that'll get you.

Barakku		2010-07-19 05:11:08 PM

In practicality I'm sure this would be much slower and probably more expensive, since the data doesn't start on the drives, airlines suck, pick up would be a problem, ect ect ect. The Cloud FTW.

ZAZ		2010-07-19 05:16:59 PM

...is insignificant next to the bandwidth of the force.

yogaFLAME		2010-07-19 05:27:43 PM

That's a big packet.

markie_farkie		2010-07-19 05:29:43 PM

Done in one, now get back to farting in each other's general direction.

Bladel		2010-07-19 05:40:56 PM

Had a comp sci professor in the 90s claim that no current technology could top the bandwidth a FedEx Pak stuffed with CDROMs and shipped Priority Overnight.

Wonder if that's still true? What if we switched to data DVDs or stick drives?

jspenguin		2010-07-19 05:54:43 PM

DAT 320? An Ultrium-5 tape can store 1.6TB uncompressed, and is only about twice the size of DAT.

Even better, fill it to the brim with these:

imgs.xkcd.com

It would only take 10 to equal the uncompressed capacity as DAT 320.

timujin		2010-07-19 06:47:20 PM

Bladel: Had a comp sci professor in the 90s claim that no current technology could top the bandwidth a FedEx Pak stuffed with CDROMs and shipped Priority Overnight.

Here's the thing about that. How much would it cost? $40? So $40 a day * 30 days, plus a little more for Saturday delivery... oh, and you can't get your data on Sunday. So we're talking what? $1300 a month? For that, I can get a pretty fat pipe hooked up and I can still get data on Sunday.

FishyFred		2010-07-19 06:56:16 PM

curlinggod: Oh yeah, an African 747 maybe, but not a European 747. But then the African 747's not migratory...

Maybe if two 747s held the DATs between them.

haemaker		2010-07-19 08:13:33 PM

jspenguin: DAT 320? An Ultrium-5 tape can store 1.6TB uncompressed, and is only about twice the size of DAT.

Even better, fill it to the brim with these:

It would only take 10 to equal the uncompressed capacity as DAT 320.

this.

and...
Bladel: Had a comp sci professor in the 90s claim that no current technology could top the bandwidth a FedEx Pak stuffed with CDROMs and shipped Priority Overnight.

Wonder if that's still true? What if we switched to data DVDs or stick drives?

Not this anymore. AT&T is using OC-768 at 40Gbits, I think that beats a FedEx box of BD+.

ALSO:

Anyone saying this is always (mis)quoting Tanenbaum:

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

Every network engineer discusses this concept, and every network engineer uses it at least once in his career.

If you don't understand this you will fall victim to: "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

cirby		2010-07-19 08:31:05 PM

"The cable is carrying a lot of information back and forth between Hiro's computer and the rest of the world. In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper, they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes, forever."

Snow Crash

wjllope		2010-07-19 08:38:02 PM

FishyFred: curlinggod: Oh yeah, an African 747 maybe, but not a European 747. But then the African 747's not migratory...

Maybe if two 747s held the DATs between them.

Their wings would flap together!

Tickle Mittens		2010-07-19 08:39:55 PM

So what would the bandwidth of Santa's fully laden sleigh be?

traylor		2010-07-19 08:49:36 PM

Lost packets could be a real problem.

wildcardjack		2010-07-19 08:56:47 PM

Ah, but what is the bandwidth of a fully laden swallow!

russlar		2010-07-19 09:08:05 PM

The bandwidth of a fully laden African ~~swallow~~ carrier pidgeon

wjllope		2010-07-19 09:14:29 PM

russlar: The bandwidth of a fully laden African swallow carrier pidgeon

heh..

/BURN

MachineHead		2010-07-19 09:19:57 PM

Hey, I wrote a calculator (new window) for just such an application.

I really need to fix it for Chrome.

mrlewish		2010-07-19 09:21:26 PM

How many carry ons would that count for?

ChubbyTiger		2010-07-19 09:30:18 PM

MachineHead: Hey, I wrote a calculator (new window) for just such an application.

I really need to fix it for Chrome.

www.city-data.com

jfarkinB		2010-07-19 09:31:33 PM

Cartridges? Hah! A 32GB MicroSDHC card is 11x15x1mm, and weighs 0.4g.

A cubic foot of them would hold over five petabytes, and weigh less than 70 kg.

If a 747 can haul 140 tonnes of actual cargo, that would be over 10 exabytes.

Gaboo		2010-07-19 09:34:20 PM

So the internet really isn't a big truck... it's a friggin' plane! It's all starting to make sense now.

grinding_journalist		2010-07-19 09:40:21 PM

Bladel: Had a comp sci professor in the 90s claim that no current technology could top the bandwidth a FedEx Pak stuffed with CDROMs and shipped Priority Overnight.

Wonder if that's still true? What if we switched to data DVDs or stick drives?

jfarkinB: Cartridges? Hah! A 32GB MicroSDHC card is 11x15x1mm, and weighs 0.4g.

A cubic foot of them would hold over five petabytes, and weigh less than 70 kg.

If a 747 can haul 140 tonnes of actual cargo, that would be over 10 exabytes.

Wasn't there a a geek link recently that said a new internet landspeed record had been set at something like 11GB/sec?

Someone else do the math.

loonatic112358		2010-07-19 09:40:48 PM

jfarkinB: Cartridges? Hah! A 32GB MicroSDHC card is 11x15x1mm, and weighs 0.4g.

A cubic foot of them would hold over five petabytes, and weigh less than 70 kg.

If a 747 can haul 140 tonnes of actual cargo, that would be over 10 exabytes.

if you don't have enough pipe upgrade to the airbus a380 150 tonne, or to the Antonov An-225 which carries 275 tons

MachineHead		2010-07-19 09:42:26 PM

ChubbyTiger:

We are still on the geek tab right?

/hides head

wjllope		2010-07-19 09:57:50 PM

jfarkinB: Cartridges? Hah! A 32GB MicroSDHC card is 11x15x1mm, and weighs 0.4g.

A cubic foot of them would hold over five petabytes, and weigh less than 70 kg.

If a 747 can haul 140 tonnes of actual cargo, that would be over 10 exabytes.

A guy I work with wrote an SBIR proposal along those lines. It wasn't MicroSDHC cards (rate getting the data on and off the transportable media was also a consideration) but it was basically the same idea.

/AFAIK sharing downloaded music, movies, etc with friends using the same idea is called "sneakernet".

Theaetetus		2010-07-19 10:08:39 PM

Gaboo: So the internet really isn't a big truck... it's a friggin' plane! It's all starting to make sense now.

The Internet isn't like a series of tubes... it's more like a series of trucks.

haemaker		2010-07-19 10:09:32 PM

wjllope: jfarkinB: Cartridges? Hah! A 32GB MicroSDHC card is 11x15x1mm, and weighs 0.4g.

A cubic foot of them would hold over five petabytes, and weigh less than 70 kg.

If a 747 can haul 140 tonnes of actual cargo, that would be over 10 exabytes.

A guy I work with wrote an SBIR proposal along those lines. It wasn't MicroSDHC cards (rate getting the data on and off the transportable media was also a consideration) but it was basically the same idea.

/AFAIK sharing downloaded music, movies, etc with friends using the same idea is called "sneakernet".

RAID?

Vacation Bible School		2010-07-19 10:21:16 PM

Theaetetus: Gaboo: So the internet really isn't a big truck... it's a friggin' plane! It's all starting to make sense now.

The Internet isn't like a series of tubes... it's more like a series of trucks.

Like a
idology.files.wordpress.com

even!

LoneVVolf		2010-07-19 10:36:20 PM

Would you trust half the internet's porn archive to the baggage handlers at Heathrow?

loonatic112358		2010-07-19 10:44:58 PM

LoneVVolf: Would you trust half the internet's porn archive to the baggage handlers at Heathrow?

you don't label it as porn

kenryoku_one		2010-07-19 10:53:17 PM

cirby: "The cable is carrying a lot of information back and forth between Hiro's computer and the rest of the world. In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper, they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes, forever."

Snow Crash

Came to post exactly this but since you beat me to it and I already have the page up, I'll post a completely unrelated quote.

"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfarker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
Hiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about trying to be the baddest motherfarker in the world. The position is taken."

Eyebleach		2010-07-19 11:01:22 PM

If they could find a way to slow the plane down to about 45 knots 1/4 of the way through its Atlantic trip and still keep it in the air, there would finally officially be something more sucky for gaming than Hughes.

Watching_Epoxy_Cure		2010-07-19 11:15:26 PM

Barakku: In practicality I'm sure this would be much slower and probably more expensive, since the data doesn't start on the drives, airlines suck, pick up would be a problem, ect ect ect. The Cloud FTW.

The cloud is for those who believe their data is better of in someone else's hands.

Kraftwerk Orange		2010-07-20 01:54:08 AM

Gaboo: So the internet really isn't a big truck... it's a friggin' plane! It's all starting to make sense now.

I'm still confused about how the planes are flying inside the tubes.

Don't they bump into each other sometimes; is that what they mean when they say the server crashed?

almandot		2010-07-20 02:00:42 AM

There are many times that I figure it's leaps and bounds faster to burn something(a large movie file) onto a data DVD and mail it to my friend across country than it would be to send them the 4-8gb worth. I wish that wasn't the case.

buckler		2010-07-20 02:19:38 AM

curlinggod: Oh yeah, an African 747 maybe, but not a European 747. But then the African 747's not migratory...

You'd have to put them in a line...

grinding_journalist		2010-07-20 03:04:52 AM

kenryoku_one: cirby: "The cable is carrying a lot of information back and forth between Hiro's computer and the rest of the world. In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper, they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes, forever."

Snow Crash

Came to post exactly this but since you beat me to it and I already have the page up, I'll post a completely unrelated quote.

"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfarker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
Hiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about trying to be the baddest motherfarker in the world. The position is taken."

I posted that second quote in a thread about Medal of Honor recipients, regarding how I feel about them, and the stories about how they got their medals.

kenryoku_one		2010-07-20 03:55:09 AM

grinding_journalist: kenryoku_one: cirby: "The cable is carrying a lot of information back and forth between Hiro's computer and the rest of the world. In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper, they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes, forever."

Snow Crash

Came to post exactly this but since you beat me to it and I already have the page up, I'll post a completely unrelated quote.

"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfarker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
Hiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about trying to be the baddest motherfarker in the world. The position is taken."

I posted that second quote in a thread about Medal of Honor recipients, regarding how I feel about them, and the stories about how they got their medals.

Excellent use of it!

Theaetetus		2010-07-20 09:02:21 AM

Kraftwerk Orange: Gaboo: So the internet really isn't a big truck... it's a friggin' plane! It's all starting to make sense now.

I'm still confused about how the planes are flying inside the tubes.

Don't they bump into each other sometimes; is that what they mean when they say the server crashed?

The Internet is like a series of trucks, each one driven by an illiterate moron with no map. At every toll booth, the driver leans out and says "how do I get to [x]" and the toll booth attendant says "I don't know, but take this road, and ask someone there."

This		2010-07-20 10:03:23 AM

Yeah, but what about that 64800000ms ping?

Gaboo		2010-07-20 10:04:15 AM

Theaetetus: The Internet is like a series of trucks, each one driven by an illiterate moron with no map. At every toll booth, the driver leans out and says "how do I get to [x]" and the toll booth attendant says "I don't know, but take this road, and ask someone there."

Then where do the tubes come in? I was starting to thing I had it all figured out, but then you go and throw a wrench in it.

Gaboo		2010-07-20 10:06:02 AM

think, even. See, all these trucks, planes, tubes, and toll booth attendants have gone and f*cked up my typing abilities.

cefm		2010-07-20 11:11:03 AM

That's not "bandwidth", it's storage space. If you measure bandwidth by how much you can PHYSICALLY transfer from one place to another, then you might as well be talking about horsepower. Farking 1800's IT.

etherknot		2010-07-20 02:43:38 PM

Gaboo: So the internet really isn't a big truck... it's a friggin' plane! It's all starting to make sense now.

Coming soon:

"Internets on a Plane"

/"I've farking had it with these motherfarking tapes on a plane!"

LoneVVolf		2010-07-20 04:51:33 PM

loonatic112358: LoneVVolf: Would you trust half the internet's porn archive to the baggage handlers at Heathrow?

you don't label it as porn

Doesn't matter what you label it as; it's probably not going to be at baggage claim on the other end.

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