Wouldn't the signal have to do a full round trip within the timeout of 3 ms, meaning it could not go beyond 580 / 2 = 290 miles?
Additionally, the connection from A to B is usually not a straight line, and at that time fiber lines were much less widespread. All these factors combines make it unlikely that even 200 miles could be reached...
> Well, to start with, it can't be three milliseconds, because that would only be for the outgoing packet to arrive at its destination. You have to get a response, too, before the timeout will be aborted. Shouldn't it be six milliseconds?
> Of course. This is one of the details I skipped in the story. It seemed irrelevant, and boring, so I left it out.
I don't understand, so it was in fact 6 ms?
I love that every time this link gets posted to HN someone says it looks like a hoax.
> That three millisecond time doesn't make sense as the timeout for a connect() call.
> Yes, I know. And it wasn't the timeout, actually. In the story, I make it sound like it took all of ten minutes from being made aware of the 500-mile email limit and determining a 3 ms light-speed issue. In fact, this took several hours, and quite a bit of detective work. The point is, eventually I came up with that figure, ran units, and gagged on my latte. (I'm fairly certain it was a different latte from the one I started with.) So what, in particular, is your question about the 3 ms figure?