That's a pretty good analogy, Dartz.
Real-world network nodes are, at minimum, an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_unit]8U box - that's 19"×19"×14", plus an external power supply. They need to be this large because of all the connectors that plug into them. And that's for internal networks - even the smallest Internet nodes are made up of multiple 8U boxes.
Certainly, someone in Fenspace can handwave a terminal to something the size of a lapel pin (and no doubt the Trekkies do that on a mass-production basis), but that isn't a node. It probably isn't even Interwave (although one should never rule out the Mads).
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Real-world network nodes are, at minimum, an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_unit]8U box - that's 19"×19"×14", plus an external power supply. They need to be this large because of all the connectors that plug into them. And that's for internal networks - even the smallest Internet nodes are made up of multiple 8U boxes.
Certainly, someone in Fenspace can handwave a terminal to something the size of a lapel pin (and no doubt the Trekkies do that on a mass-production basis), but that isn't a node. It probably isn't even Interwave (although one should never rule out the Mads).
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012