#908: The Cloud explain

[Cueball finds a computer tower with a wire leading away from it.]

Cueball: What’s this?

Off-screen: The Cloud.

[Cueball looks behind him. The wire leads to an outlet in the wall next to where Black Hat sits at a desk with a computer. Another wire leads from that outlet to Black Hat’s computer.]

Cueball: Huh? I always thought “The Cloud” was a huge, amorphous network of servers somewhere.

Black Hat: Yeah, but everyone buys server time from everyone else. In the end, they’re all getting it here.

[A close-up of Black Hat.]

Cueball: How? You’re on a cable modem.

Black Hat: There’s a lot of caching.

[A close-up of Cueball, looking down at the tower at his feet.]

Cueball: Should the cord be stretched across the room like this?

Black Hat: Of course. It has to reach the server, and the server is over there.

[Cueball turns back to the Black Hat, still sitting at the computer.]

Cueball: What if someone trips on it?

Black Hat: Who would want to do that? It sounds unpleasant.

Cueball: Uh. Sometimes people do stuff by accident.

Black Hat: I don’t think I know anybody like that.