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from the do-not-welcome-your-communist-overlords dept.
Susan Crawford reports on "El Paquete" (the package), Cuba's answer to the internet, an informal but extraordinarily lucrative distribution chain where anyone in Cuba who can pay can watch telenovelas, first-run Hollywood movies, brand-new episodes of Game of Thrones, and even search for a romantic partner. The so-called "weekly package," which is normally distributed from house to house contains the latest foreign films a week, shows, TV series, documentaries, games, information, music, and more. The thumb drives make their way across the island from hand to hand, by bus, and by 1957 Chevy, their contents copied and the drive handed on. "El Paquete plays to Cuban strengths and needs," writes Crawford because Cubans are great at sharing. "And being paid to be part of the thumb-drive supply chain is a respectable job in an economy that is desperately short on employment opportunities." Sunday the "weekly package" of 1 terabyte is priced at $ 10, then $2 on Monday or Tuesday and $1 for the rest of the week.
The sneakernet is still in use today in other parts of the world including Bhutan where a sneakernet distributes offline educational resources, including Kiwix and Khan Academy on a Stick to hundreds of schools and other educational institutions. Google once used a sneakernet to transport 120 TB of data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes hurtling down the highway".
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:08PM
One story that I recall was regarding bibles in Russia. The story may have been part truth and part propaganda, and I was young when I heard it, so please take it with a grain of salt. I suppose my point was that "black markets" will pop-up around prohibited, or scarce items.
(Score: 4, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:15PM
I remember a gentleman coming and telling us how very difficult it had proved to get the Bible into Tibet. There had been seven occasions: the first time, there had been landslides. The second time, it rained - the pages got stuck together. The third time, the mules fell off the mountainside. The fourth time, there were thunder bolts, and so on. The seventh time, he said, "God helped us! And we got the Bibles into Tibet." The obvious conclusion is that God was trying like hell to stop them.
- John Cleese