At 11:21 PM 10/24/2002 -0700, "James A. Donald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
-- On 24 Oct 2002 at 20:32, Morlock Elloi wrote: > Napster clones, kazaa, gnutella et al. rely on end-users to > upload stuff. These end users simply have no bandwidth > available for that. Cheapo DSL lines have hundred or few > hundreds of kbit/sec unguaranteed upload capacity. No one is > going to pay T1 to serve free stuff in breach of copyright > laws. > > The net result is - and anyone can try it for themselves - > that average success rate is less than 40%, the speed is > miserable - most of the time it takes hour or more for 5-6 > minute mp3, and then you need to be lucky so that content > matches the title.I am a really big fan of "Buffy". A cute chick, lots of violence and killing, and a bit of sex, what more can one ask for in a TV show? Recently due to family crisis, I missed a couple of shows. So, using usenet, I downloaded the two one hour shows that I missed.
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The RAR/PAR file format combo is a simple and effective way to publish large files on Usenet. It overcomes file segment loss problems and is relatively easy to use. If someone were to automate this, so users wouldn't need to pay attention to file details at all, it would be a big improvement. Right anyone downloading music or videos from Usnet still has to take a bit of time to learn about the file transport technology, obtain and learn to several new programs (WinRAR, SmartPAR and a specialized newsgroup reader, e.g., NewsBinPro) before they stand a good chance of getting the content they desire.I have never downloaded a tv show off the internet before. Everything just worked, no fuss, unlike some encryption programs I could mention.
Usenet could potentially solve the bandwidth problem for music broadcast. The standard retention time for Usenet content is 2 days. If stations upload songs in their upcoming playlists it would allow listeners to download them ahead of time and synchronize with the playlist time. I think ISPs and content distributors would much prefer replacing real-time, expensive, unicast streaming with cheap Usenet store-and-forward.
The same service could be commercially offered for popular broadcast content (e.g., weekly news programs), which is not time critical, now streamed at high cost to both publisher and ISP.
steve
