Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utcs.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!pubs-lab From: pubs-lab@utcs.UUCP (Taras Pryjma) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: Stargate and Usenet Message-ID: <310@utcs.UUCP> Date: Sun, 30-Dec-84 02:14:58 EST Article-I.D.: utcs.310 Posted: Sun Dec 30 02:14:58 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 30-Dec-84 02:31:32 EST Organization: University of Toronto - General Purpose UNIX Lines: 52 It seems interesting to note that nothing has been mentioned in the current discusion of Stargate, of the ability of Stargate to go anywhere that WTBS goes now currently. I seem to recall awhile back, in the early days of TVRO systems, of various people playing with their satellite dishes and picking up signals from European, Soviet and Japanese satellites and displaying them on their TV sets. Thus by implication, anywhere that WTBS can be received, the Stargate feed could also be received, the implications for this are immense, due to the fact that the distribution of moderated news groups that Lauren keeps talking about could easily be distributed to anywhere that signal reaches, such as Western Europe, Japan and Korea, with relatively no additional cost. In other words Usenet, or the Stargate portion of it, would finally become truly international computer network. At least it would be a one of a kind network, not at all like BITNET or ARPANET, due to its purpose and structure. I don't know if anybody considered the volume or the bandwidth of Stargate operating at either 1200 or 9600 baud. The volume of material even for one hour of constant transmission is simply horrendous. I have a terminal at home with a 1200 baud modem, and I know that I can't afford the time to read even a small percentage of USENET traffic that I would find useful, never mind the junk. To put another point in perspective, if the the telephone tarriffs are the same here as in other jurisdictions, the point of Stargate is to reduce, as much as possible, the long distance portion of the phonebill that many sites face. Since the cost of local calls in alot of jurisdictions are flat rate, the idea of using the SCA portion of FM signals does not make economic sense, never mind the technical problems involved. Also since, we are transmitting computer data anyways, dosn't it make sense to use packet networks, such as Datapac, Tymenet and Telenet with the appropriate PAD devices or X.25 boards to further reduce long distance charges that many sites incur. Regardless of whether we are talking about Usenet traffic or not. It also seems to me, that the users of USENET, must at some point or another justify the amount of time they spend reading and submitting articles to various news groups not only to their employers, but to themselves. This must halve at some point some economic value, if only for discussion of certain timely topics that the net has done in the past. In the future, along with the amount of verberage that will inevitably be generated, I think that you will find that another group will come onto the net. A group of people such as doctors, lawyers, engineers (none EEs), and other professionals that will use the net to discuss issues that they find important and topical once they, like us, discover the power and the additive nature of this network. Taras S. Pryjma