SMB:
For what it's worth, I first heard that analogy -- more precisely, "never understimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of mag tapes going up the Taconic Parkway" in the 1969-1970 academic year.
The classic Compuserve story was they got {Internet} mail before ftp, etc... This mail came via a Telebit Trailblazer link to OSU where Karl Kleinpaste was postmaster, or at least chief guru. Trouble was, CIS users soon discovered: a) ftp-by-mail {It broke your ftp up into mail-sized chunks and mailed you as many parts as needed.. I used to use it for SIMTEL20} and b) certain Swedish ftp sites. By the time Karl got on top of it, the queue had overflowed all available OSU mail disk space and shut down OSU's mail. The nose-high professors had the unmitigated gall to complain about same. Karl had to work fast. The first thing was a CIS mail block. The second was to write off much of the backlog to 9 track tape and drive it across town to CIS where they mounted and loaded same. The only disappointment in this is there is no "turnpike" anywhere nearby Columbus, & I don't know if Karl drove a station wagon. -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433