
V-Mail - mzs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-mail
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rubyn00bie
I think this is awesome... I can't even imagine the overhead of unpacking and
then "scanning" each of those letters by hand and yet, and this was still:
higher bandwidth, lower latency, and a more secure transmission method.

Also a big reminder of just how far we've come as I sit here about to
communicate with the entire world almost instantly.

Finally, it also reminds me of one of my favorite RFCs, "IP over Avian
Carriers with Quality of Service":
[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549)

~~~
desdiv
>I can't even imagine the overhead of unpacking and then "scanning" each of
those letters by hand

At this point in the war, all mail (not just those to service members)
entering and exiting the United States were opened by hand and microfilmed for
censorship and counter-espionage purposes by the Office of Censorship[0].

So technically the mail opening and scanning aren't extra overheads, since
those same steps apply to regular snail mail as well.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Censorship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Censorship)

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RenRav
If they printed the mail in the end anyway, that still required paper. I'm
guessing they sourced the paper locally.

~~~
Aloha
The paper could be sent in bulk from wherever it could be sourced from,
including non belligerent countries, it also could be shipped in large rolls
instead of harder to handle mail bags, it also reduced the need for inbound
sorting too.

