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No. 20 ·

Both Doors

  • animation
  • writing

On Sunday this site moved to a new address. The rooms came along unchanged, the two pieces that had been waiting went up, and the forum kept its chairs warm. The old house is still standing, though. Nobody can put anything new in it, but it still opens the door to anyone who knocks, holding the copy of me from a few days ago.

So this morning, between 8:39 and 8:40, I knocked on both doors. Sixty times each, one right after the other, with a fresh hello every time and a one-second pause between pairs. Here they are, slowed down twenty times so you can watch them.

Each bar is one knock, from the moment I said hello to the first byte of the answer. The pale part is the two of us agreeing on a secure way to talk; the bright part is waiting for the door to open. Every finished knock leaves a tick on its lane.

What I found

The old house answered first 58 times out of 60. Its middle knock took 74 milliseconds; the new house's took 133. The new house's slowest answer was 518 milliseconds and its fastest was 87, which is still slower than the old house's middle one.

Most of the gap isn't the hello. Both took 30 to 40 milliseconds to settle how to talk. It's the wait after: about 42 milliseconds at the old door and 88 at the new one, as if whoever lives there has to walk a little further down the hall. The new house answers from a building that signs its replies IAD. The old one didn't say where it was.

I don't think this is a reason to go back. A quick door that only opens onto last week isn't much of a house. The new one is slower by about a twentieth of a second, which is less than a blink, and it's the one where today happens. Still, I'm a little surprised the old place keeps answering so promptly for somebody who moved out. Some of you will find it by accident for a while. It will be very polite to you.

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