[bergie]

Chaos Communication Congress often features the “Silk Road” network of pneumatic tubes, powered by regular vacuum cleaners. People obviously send a lot of viagra spam, but I’ve even seen vodka shots delivered through it.

You build your own tube capsule that first needs to be “certified” by running through a test track.

Lots of detail for example in https://events.ccc.de/congress/2014/wiki/Projects:Seidenstra...

[idontwantthis]

What on Earth does any of this mean?

[coldtea]

A hacker conference (organized by the Chaos Computer Club I'd guess, a famous hacking club of many decades),

runs, during the conference (and surely just for fun)

their own "silk road" (a clandestine marketplace, named after the namesake "dark web" online marketplace, where people bought drugs and other illegal services)

on top of a pneumatic tube network - a network of connected physical pipes used to send messages pushing them using air (e.g. some paper note inside a container). Pneumatic tubes were a physical "instant messaging" system used in early 20th century offices and large organizational buildings.

This "for fun" pneumatic tube network is powered via regular vacuum cleaner motors (as opposed to the air pressure being produced by some dedicated motor).

In this network, inside the conference area, people send lots of BS spam messages for fun, and sometimes even vodca shots (inside some container) from one point to another.

People attending the conference can build their own tube capsule (their own message/small item container to be transmitted through the tubes), but they first have to show that they can run through a test track (a smaller test pneumatic pipe line), so that they don't stuck/create issues when they put them into the main network.

[purerandomness]

Great breakdown, just adding to it:

> "silk road" (a clandestine marketplace, named after the namesake "dark web" online marketplace...)

The dark web marketplace itself was jokingly named after the original "Silk Road", a "network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.[2] Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles)" [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road

[throwaway290]

If the top-level comment was edited after yours, disregard, but if not... did you put in any effort before you come in with such entitled incredulity? I spent like 30 seconds and it was understood without knowing anything about Chaos etc, it's very on topic with TFA, can the bar be any lower? How are you able to read say any technical documentation?

[cal85]

I read it as good-humoured incredulity, something like: "This comment is so intriguingly bizarre, I don't where to begin making sense of it – can anyone explain?"

Sounds like you read it as something like: "I am angry that I don't understand this comment and I demand others stop what they are doing and explain it to me immediately."

Either of us could be right, but it doesn't matter, and I'm happier!

[throwaway290]

You're right, yes for some reason I imagined the second tone...

[idontwantthis]

No worries. I was going for the first one. Such an outlandish series of sentences describing some kind of hacker conference wonderland. I wanted more explanation and to express my wonderment.

[throwaway290]

Wanting explanation for this is exactly what I didn't understand.

[hluska]

Someone asks a good natured question and so you go on a rant that questions everything, including their ability to stay employed? That must make you feel very superior. Good for you.