The story would be better, if they had kept the real numbers, and not added fake numbers afterwards (maybe they didn't keep notes, and forgot the real numbers).
At the end of the story, that 3 millilightseconds is the one-way distance, and that can't be correct.
Yes, that part doesn't add up. The time from sending SYN to receiving SYN+ACK would be six milliseconds assuming lightspeed between the source and a destination 500 miles away.
That said: I know the ending, and by now the details about SunOS and sendmail aren't too interesting, but the "This is the chairman of statistics" line always gets me laughing out loud.
At the end of the story, that 3 millilightseconds is the one-way distance, and that can't be correct.