Way back in the 90s...
I was working for a software developer who was doing some stuff on peer-to-peer downloads.

Now, back in the day, you could really only do the bog-standard server to client download: Server has the file, you connect to server, download file. Done.

What we were working on was a way to spread the load on the server - bandwidth was expensive those days. So we needed some way of making the client machines do some of the work for us. Bitorrent was yet to arrive, and the idea of having clients downloading separate bits of the file from each other wasn't around either.

Then, one day, I read an article about insect colonies, and how individual critters could spread chemical messages along to each other to reach the main colony quickly - kind of playing pass-the-parcel with pheromones. INSPIRATION!

We knocked out a protocol which essentially re-directed download requests from the server to the clients - one or two clients would download from the server whilst the other clients would be downloading off them - pass-the-parcel! Huzzah!

I named the protocol "ParcelPass". Not particularly flashy, but it worked. Our little protocol netted us a nice little sum and off it went into the interwebs to help corporations get files to people who needed them. All was good.

Then, 6 years later, Bitorrent came onto the scene and had a much better protocol, forcing ParcelPass onto the scrap heap. I was quite upset at first, but then I realised that all my work on ParcelPass was simply Re-done Ant Technology.

*runs*
(DarkLite swallowed my entire undercarriage, Sun 7 Nov 2010, 1:58, 7 replies)

had me
All the way to the very end
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Sun 7 Nov 2010, 2:05, closed)

nicely done

(Cancer Joy was short lived, Sun 7 Nov 2010, 5:10, closed)

Extremely well done sir!
Excellent punnage, believable buildup and truly convoluted denouement. I salute you!
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Sun 7 Nov 2010, 9:06, closed)

Very clever

(Operation Interference, Sun 7 Nov 2010, 10:51, closed)

Got me too..
*geek chuckles followed by a click..*
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Sun 7 Nov 2010, 11:02, closed)

Isa
Click.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Sun 7 Nov 2010, 22:56, closed)

Ha. I spotted it before the end.
I only got as far as "Re-done Ant"
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Mon 8 Nov 2010, 6:50, closed)