• ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
    1·
    1 month ago

    bit bucket /n./ 1. The universal data sink (originally, the mythical receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end of a register during a shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is said to have “gone to the bit bucket”. On Unix, often used for /dev/null. Sometimes amplified as “the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky”. 2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually go. The selection is performed according to Finagle’s Law; important mail is much more likely to end up in the bit bucket than junk mail, which has an almost 100% probability of getting delivered. Routing to the bit bucket is automatically performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower layers of the network. 3. The ideal location for all unwanted mail responses: “Flames about this article to the bit bucket.” Such a request is guaranteed to overflow one’s mailbox with flames. 4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. “I mailed you those figures last week; they must have landed in the bit bucket.”

    • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 month ago

      The idea of using a cave to store memories for a bit by yelling into it so the idea echoes back later, is a beautiful dwarven fantasy solution that I don’t think could have even been imagined today. Nerds just no longer spend their formative years exploring the real world

      We are lost in the deeps, crafting a new world, completely enchanted by the demon we awakened in the delving.

      • xthexder@l.sw0.com
        1·
        1 month ago

        I watched a whole video on someone storing data as in-flight ping packets to the highest latency servers they could find. I don’t think we’re lacking in creativity at least.

        • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 month ago

          That’s really cool. That was the 90s wasn’t it? I think I remember reading something about that in 2600. Cool though it may be, it’s just the same delay-line memory, but using the Internet as a medium rather than a drum of mercury. Which echoes what I was saying. I agree with you that creativity is not lacking now. I was just musing on how it’s mostly mapped off the map now rather than the territory.