"Series of Tubes" Metaphor Implemented

meisteg writes to tell us about Tubes: a beta application that uses a tube metaphor to enable users to share files over the Internet. The Windows-only app is free and the company hopes to make money on an enhanced version targeted at businesses. See this video for some details of how Tubes works. From the article: "[Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens] endured ridicule last year for his assertion that the Internet is 'a series of tubes.' But one Web startup hopes to bring that metaphor to life with a new service that makes it easy for people to share videos, songs, pictures and other big files."

well

[User 956]

writes to tell us about Tubes: a beta application that uses a tube metaphor to enable users to share files over the Internet.

Good. Because we all know that it's not a big truck.

I have started an OS project for this

[Timesprout]

Initially it will be a series of pringle tubes duct taped together and connected to users computers thru which they can share files.

No thanks

[solevita]

No more emailing or uploading large files. Shared content is pushed to you automatically without you taking any action and everything shared is always available on everyone's computers, even when there isn't an Internet connection.

I don't care who I've invited to do what, I really don't want my friends to be able to put stuff on my PC as they feel fit. Anyone that has ever shared a printer in a University house will know the feeling - it doesn't take long until a hundred pages of "you're gay" wake you up in the middle of the night.

Share files on the Internet, right?

[Giloo]

So, where do I get the torrent? Oh wait..

The burning question

[jspoon]

How long does it take to send an internet over it? Sometimes it takes days to receive them on the current implementation.

Re:Great! An easier way...

[William_Lee]

...to send some tube steak to my (female) friends (with benefits) when I'm not there in person!

Hmmmm... A poster on slashdot with access to a friend with benefits...Somehow I doubt it, unless the benefits you're referring to are access to a Segway and a D&D partner...

Re:"The Windows-only app"

[alshithead]

"Speaking for myself, I've never owned a PC in my life, Windows or otherwise."

Holy shit! You must be posting using your psychic abilities. I alway knew mutants were out there. Are you one of the X-Men? :)

Re:Already done with anything P2P-based

[SeaFox]

Doesn't Bittorrent do this already?

Yes, but it uses a series of waves. many small waves from other users combine to become a tsunami of information washing over you.

This is an entirely different type of software. It uses a series of tubes coming from other users. The more tubes you have pointing to you, the more internets you can get at once!

Re:Tube == VPN

[kmkz]

No, VPN == Pipe. There's a big difference, you know

Re:well-Planespeak.

[B3ryllium]

There are two kinds of servers, Dump Truck Servers and Wheelbarrow Servers. Her laptop could be a wheelbarrow server (or two or three), but not a Dump Truck Server ...

Yay! A metaphor!

[Etherwalk]

A metaphor that enables users to share files! I always thought we needed similes for that. How foolish of me.

Re:What's wrong with tubes?

[dangitman]

No, it didn't take two days to get an email, it took two days to get "an internet." I'm downloading the internet right now, and it's been taking a lot longer than two days. That guy must have some hella tubes for it to only take two days.

Linux Equivalent

[camperdave]

So, the Linux equivalent to tubes would be, what?... pipes?

Re:well-Planespeak.

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer a restraunt industry metaphor since everyone eats and has most likely been to a restraunt once. You are the clientel of the restraunt (the internet) and you ask your server (i.e. google.com) for food (data), you then wait all night and ask to speak to the manager (ISP's tech support) give up in fustration and go home (logoff).

Series of...

[SQLz]

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and the rest of the Senate are a series of giant assholes.

I don't see the big deal

[SmurfButcher Bob]

... my ferrets have had internets for years! They love 'em! I even got them a router, that connects one of the 25' innernets to two of the 12' internets. The other three 25' innernets are simple PPP, however, and the routes are a tangled mess. I'm hoping to upgrade to a six port router in a few weeks, because as hard as the weasels try, the internets are DEFINITELY half duplex. They're not Cat5, either... he can stuff his head in, but that's all that'll fit without fragmentation.

The thing that sucks the most is when one of the internets get a hole chewed into it. The damned packets end up misrouted, on the floor, and you have to twist the innernet so that the hole is facing up to make it stop. Having a kitten who repeatedly cannonballs the array doesn't help much, either, because he uses the holes in the web to intercept the traffic.

In Ferret Internets, PACKETS SNIFF YOU!

Re:Just Marketing spin.

[zizzo]

...we'll tear your product to pieces. It'll be mocked by us mercilessly and swiftly forgotten. The overall marketing effort would be starkly hindered by the historic mauling that we gave it in its infancy.

Yeah, just like the thrashing we gave the iPod. You suck, Apple!

Re:Windoze Only

[ColdWetDog]

Cripes sorry for the lack of paragraph breaks!

That's OK. It takes quite a bit more than mere paragraph formatting to make sense out of anything GWB says.

Re:Just Marketing spin.

[StikyPad]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that's not your first manifesto.