- Wizzy Digital Courier
Wizzy Digital Courier is a project to distribute useful data to places with no
Internet connection. Primarily fore-mail , it also carries web content (stored locally in a web cache). From an early description of the project 1:: "Data normally carried by the dial up telephone link is instead physically carried by a mobile computer between the end user's location and a high bandwidth data drop to the Internet."Delivery mechanisms are by overnight
dialup , taking advantage of discount calling rates outside business hours, orUSB memory stick . The USB stick uses theUUCP protocol, carrying information to and from a better-connected location - perhaps a school or local business, which acts as the dropoff for Email, and fetches web content by proxy. The email and web content is re-packaged as a UUCP transaction, and ferried back on the USB stick.The project site offers a bootable CD image that lets users install Wizzy Digital Courier onto a computer, erasing what is already on the computer and installing a new operating system (a modification of
CentOS Linux, itself a derivative ofRed Hat Enterprise Linux ) along with all of the Wizzy content.History
The project was started in early 2003 to bring "low cost Internet access" to schools in
South Africa , to work on old computers, with no license fees for any software. Many installations are atShuttleworth Foundation thin client labs.ee also
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Sneakernet , which refers to the practice of a person wearing sneakers carrying afloppy disk or other portable media containing the data. The term "takkie net" was used inSouth Africa , where "Takkie" means sneaker inSouth African English . [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/takkie] .External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/township_transport/courier.html http://www.geocities.com/township_transport/courier.html]
* [http://www.citi.org.za/Article/1000/1003/2058.html http://www.citi.org.za/Article/1000/1003/2058.html]
* [http://www.wizzy.org.za/ Wizzy Digital Courier] official site
* [http://www.wizzydigital.org Sponsor site]
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