Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!hoptoad!pozar From: pozar@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Pozar) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Magazine Distribution (was Re: Allen Holub on DDJ & C-Chest) Keywords: DDJ, C-Chest, magazines Message-ID: <5468@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 27 Sep 88 05:36:33 GMT References: <22873@amdcad.AMD.COM> <14047@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <75@unet.pacbell.COM> <5550@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <3961@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> <6638@dasys1.UUCP> Reply-To: pozar@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Pozar) Distribution: na Organization: Syncstream/Widget Systems (San Francisco) Lines: 53 In article <6638@dasys1.UUCP> wfp@dasys1.UUCP (William Phillips) writes: >In article <3961@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> keithe@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) writes: >|But you might consider the potential of electronic distribution via >|television or FM broadcast subcarrier. You have your computer >|connected to your FM or TV set which decodes the stuff, filters it >|for you and has it stored, waiting for your perusal the next >|morning. If you pay extra you can skip over the advertisements; on >|the cheap you get ads included with the "useful" stuff. > >|This is not a new idea. The guy who started Dr. Dobbs'... presented Jim C. Warren Jr.?? >|this - not for the first time - at the SOG in Bend last July (damned >|if I can recall his name: but it will come to me as soon as I ship >|this note off, I'm sure :-)). > >|I whould think newspaper publishers would be real nervous about this >|if they're foresightful (huh?) enough to know about it. > >I think this is essentially how Lotus Signal works, though I believe you >have to buy a special receiver as part of the package -- probably works >better than some haywire hookup to your FM set. Signal is a stock >market quotation service. I don't know what kind of coverage it has, >or even whether it still operates, but I didn't hear of any publishers >getting worried about it. It would be interesting to know how much >data (text and graphics) such a system could move overnight. Of course, >considering that many of us hackers are using our machines for other >things (like Usenet) till the wee hours, perhaps a daytime feed would be >more appropriate :-). I wonder whether Signal operates 24 hours a day, >and if not, whether stations equipped to broadcast it would like to >generate some additional revenue by transmitting other stuff during off >hours. > Signal is a FM subcarrier transmission system. It has a rougher time of getting clean data transmission than using the Vertical Blanking Interval lines on a television station. It also has less coverage are (ussually). The maxium b/s rates that FM subcarriers will pass (per subcarrier) is ussally 9600 b/s. I have seen 56,000 b/s transmission rates, but this method takes up the whole subcarrier band. Of what I've seen, Signal only runs while the New York Stock Exchange is open. It certainly could pass other data during the "off" hours. Signal has to pay monthly for subcarriers so the meter is still running for them... Tim -- ...sun!hoptoad!\ Tim Pozar >fidogate!pozar Fido: 1:125/406 ...lll-winken!/ PaBell: (415) 788-3904 USNail: KKSF / 77 Maiden Lane / San Francisco CA 94108