Back in the 90's, before broadband...
...I used to work in a design studio in a large food company based in Manchester. In those days the only way to shift large computer files (back then 'large' meant half a megabyte) was to put them onto a ridiculously expensive and fragile SyQuest disc and courier it. Then we got a new-fangled ISDN line installed - at the time this was absolutely cutting edge technology. It became known that we could send things around the world with unprecedented speed.

One day a particularly shrill and strident member of the Marketing Department swept in waving a reasonably thick report: "I need this to be ISDN'd to the advertising agency in London, they need it within half an hour". We had a look and explained that it would take longer than that just to scan it all. Even copying and faxing it would have been quicker.

"No, no, I don't want it scanned, or a fax, or a copy, that's no use - they need the ACTUAL BOOK." It took us five minutes of baffled enquiry before we got to the bottom of it: she actually thought that ISDN had the power of teleportation, to instantaneously and physically send the report to London. Sometimes I sit quietly and reminisce about the look on her face as realisation dawned...
( sijones, Fri 4 Mar 2011, 20:43, Reply)