I'm gonna miss these two groups more than most.
Thanks for all the help over the last 15+ years.
there are free ones on
motzarella.org
gazeta.pl (down the last couple of days)
datemas.de
posted via motzarella for this one
Google was fine when it was deja vu, crap nowadays
--
General electronic repairs, other than TVs and PCs
http://www.divdev.fsnet.co.uk/repairs.htm
Diverse Devices, Southampton
There are other ways of getting news groups than just your ISP providing
them.
--
*Dance like nobody's watching.
Dave Plowman da...@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Read my sig.
Conversion was easy -- just the server name, userid, and password (the
last two they choose for you, and they're wierd -- although the
proper command depended I think on whether the internal article
number, within a newsgroup, was greater or less with APN than it had
been with Erols.
With less, I didn't have to do anything but get more headers, etc.
With more, I had to "Sample the latest 1000 headers", for example.
Forte Agent has this last command, but I don't know if other
newsreaders have an equivalent. At worst, you'll have to unsubscribe
from the newsgroup, discard the contents you've gotten so far, and
start from scratch, for those newsgroups where it doesn't just work
normally.
A tribute to Erols/RCN/Starpower which took away newsgroups,
without giving any notice, in advance or when they did it!!
And a real tribute to https://www.forteinc.com/apn/subscribe.php
which starts at 3 dollars for 12 gigs a month,
including alt, misc, and everything else, 12 gigs is
far more than someone who dl's mostly text should ever need.
Thanks for those references.
... if you had one.
*Not* the best choice -- by far.
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
* Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm
>On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:00:47 -0400, mm wrote:
>> On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:44:11 -0700, "nospam" <a@b.c> wrote:
>>
>>>http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
>>>
>>>I'm gonna miss these two groups more than most.
>>>
>>>Thanks for all the help over the last 15+ years.
>>
>> Read my sig.
>
>... if you had one.
The post you replied to had one. Does it have to have a blank line or
label that says sig for you to be able to tell?
--
A tribute to Erols/RCN/Starpower which took away newsgroups,
without giving any notice, in advance or when they did it!!
And a real tribute to https://www.forteinc.com/apn/subscribe.php
which starts at 3 dollars for 12 gigs a month,
including alt, misc, the big 8 and everything else, 12 gigs is
nospam wrote:
Go to astraweb. $10 non-expiring 25GB of downloads.
Graham
I, for one, would love to.
The problem:
What would you suggest I use for connectivity? Satellite is a
non-starter. Dialup? Don't make me laugh... It'd be going over Comcast's
VOIP, and at a higher price than I'm already paying for the internet
connection! Wireless? Not a bad idea - if we had anything that even
resembled line-of-sight to the general vicinity of the only wireless
installation in the area. All factors which conspire to leave me, and
likely quite a few others like me, pretty well hosed.
Ain't communications monopolies great?
--
Don Bruder - dak...@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info
>>>Read my sig.
>>
>>... if you had one.
>
> The post you replied to had one.
No, it didn't.
>In article <48D5AF57...@hotmail.com>,
> Eeyore <rabbitsfriend...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> nospam wrote:
>>
>> > http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
>>
>> I suggest YOU drop comcast.
>>
>> Graham
>
>I, for one, would love to.
> <snip>
>All factors which conspire to leave me, and
>likely quite a few others like me, pretty well hosed.
>
>Ain't communications monopolies great?
Ditto
>On 20 Sep 2008 23:43:01 GMT, Allodoxaphobia <bit-b...@config.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:00:47 -0400, mm wrote:
>>> On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:44:11 -0700, "nospam" <a@b.c> wrote:
>>>
>>>>http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
>>>>
>>>>I'm gonna miss these two groups more than most.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks for all the help over the last 15+ years.
>>>
>>> Read my sig.
>>
>>... if you had one.
>
>The post you replied to had one. Does it have to have a blank line or
>label that says sig for you to be able to tell?
I must confess that I didn't recognise your sig, either, until you
added the dash-dash-space.
- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
Why do you say that?
When that post came back to me, it had a sig, almost the identical sig
that my next post had and that this post will have.
Now I can understand that a reader can't tell just from looking what I
wrote specifically for a given post, and what came from the sig. file.
But I can't understand how the two of you don't know that you can't
tell just from looking, and why you think there was no sig. when I've
told you there was one**. And why it's so important to each of you,
and why you're so sure you're right, that you go to the trouble to
post.
**When I said "See my sig" in my first post, and again when I assured
Allodox in my second post that there was a sig.
That really interests me, and I would be most interested in any
explanation. And grateful for a serious explanation.
(You're not just pulling my chain because I don't always use a period
after "sig", are you? That would be quite a waste of time and
bandwidth, so I don't think it's that.)
I understand that. But you didn't think it so important that you
posted about it just to point out that I was wrong. You don't have
the troll-like nature the other two exhibited.
I only figured out on Tuesday that my service was cancelled; it took
until Thursday to pick an alternative, and until Saturday when I read
the start of this thread to decide to tell everyone how
Erols/RCN/Starpower had behaved. My post in this thread was the
first time I had used the sig, and so it had errors. Once I saw them,
I was able to correct them.
Other than the fact that Comcast charges too much, I have no complaints --
their customer service is excellent.
But if I dropped Comcast (as Scarlett said) -- Where would I go? What would
I do? Satellite doesn't provide Internet service. * And I can't go back to
dial-up.
Some of the money spent on the Iraq war might have been spent to install a
universal fiber-optic infrastructure. The actual service would be provided
by competing companies, not the government.
* As far as I know. Years ago there was a hybrid satellite system, with a
land connection providing the uploads.
Direct PC
--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html
aioe.org, Goggle Groups, and Web TV users must request to be white
listed, or I will not see your messages.
If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm
There are two kinds of people on this earth:
The crazy, and the insane.
The first sign of insanity is denying that you're crazy.
It isn't a sig file without the sig delimiter. That combination of
two dashes, a space and a return allow proper news readers to
automatically trim the signature when you reply to a message. ANything
else is just inline text, no matter why it is there. Your news reader
software should automatically add the delimiter, followed by a simple
text file you create as your signature.
You are using Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) which is
about six years old. Even so, it should support a proper sig file.
What you are using right now is not a sig delimiter. It is missing the
space after the dashes.
> I only figured out on Tuesday that my service was cancelled; it took
> until Thursday to pick an alternative, and until Saturday when I read
> the start of this thread to decide to tell everyone how
> Erols/RCN/Starpower had behaved. My post in this thread was the
> first time I had used the sig, and so it had errors. Once I saw them,
> I was able to correct them.
> --
> A tribute to Erols/RCN/Starpower which took away newsgroups,
> without giving any notice, in advance or when they did it!!
>
> And a real tribute to https://www.forteinc.com/apn/subscribe.php
> which starts at 3 dollars for 12 gigs a month,
> including alt, misc, the big 8 and everything else, 12 gigs is
> far more than someone who dl's mostly text should ever need.
Don Bruder wrote:
> Eeyore <rabbitsfriend...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > nospam wrote:
> >
> > > http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
> >
> > I suggest YOU drop comcast.
>
> I, for one, would love to.
>
> The problem:
> What would you suggest I use for connectivity?
No alternative at all ? Cable or ADSL, whichever Comcast isn't. If none then
presumably the internet you already have ?
You install a 'news reader' program - the simpler the better IMHO, I use Netscape
4.8, configure it and hey presto you have news.
Graham
William Sommerwerck wrote:
> > I suggest YOU drop Comcast.
>
> Other than the fact that Comcast charges too much, I have no complaints --
> their customer service is excellent.
>
> But if I dropped Comcast (as Scarlett said) -- Where would I go? What would
> I do? Satellite doesn't provide Internet service. * And I can't go back to
> dial-up.
Don't you have different carriers and systems like cable vs DSL in the USA ?
Obviously 'outback' may be difficult.
Graham
> Internet service is available via satellite, a friend of mine in a rural
> area has it.
> I still use dialup. Nothing wrong with dialup, it teaches one the virtue
> of patience, and with the right provider it is very inexpensive!
There's lots wrong with dialup when you're downloading multi-megabyte files.
>> Some of the money spent on the Iraq war might have been spent to install
a
>> universal fiber-optic infrastructure.
> I don't really have any interest in having a fiber optic connection to my
> home, and do not believe taxpayer dollars should be spent on such a thing.
Yeah, I guess the interstate highways were a really lousy idea, too.
Eisenhower, that damned socialist.
The others aren't available in my area.
> Don't you have different carriers and systems like cable vs DSL in the USA
?
> Obviously 'outback' may be difficult.
DSL is not available in my area. The phone company uses multiplexed lines
that can't carry high-speed digital.
The lines can certainly handle digital. It's how the phone company chooses
to use them that can't. ;-)
--
*If you can read this, thank a teecher
Check out Motzarella.com, free Usenet access. I'm using it since Cox's
Usenet servers have been pretty much useless the past couple of months.
The money has ALREADY been given.
The problem is that the ISPs pocketed the cash and haven't delivered:
http://www.google.com/search?q=$200.billion+internet.service.providers
>On 2008-09-21, William Sommerwerck <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote:
>> But if I dropped Comcast (as Scarlett said) -- Where would I go? What would
>> I do? Satellite doesn't provide Internet service. * And I can't go back to
>> dial-up.
>
>Internet service is available via satellite, a friend of mine in a rural
>area has it.
Good to know. Plus Verizon at least has internet via cell phone
towers.
>I still use dialup. Nothing wrong with dialup, it teaches one the virtue
>of patience, and with the right provider it is very inexpensive!
I agree.
I have dsl for a year now. WRT email and Usenet, the extra speed
means next to nothing. Its good that webpages are faster, but I used
to dl webpages while reading my email or the newsgroups.
What is nice about dsl is it's easier to play radio; and even tv such
as the political conventions, where it started even earlier than
public tv. But I don't have cable tv
I got a good deal on dsl for teh first 2 years, but I have no idea
what they will want to charge me a year from now.
>> Some of the money spent on the Iraq war might have been spent to install a
>> universal fiber-optic infrastructure.
>
>I don't really have any interest in having a fiber optic connection to my
>home, and do not believe taxpayer dollars should be spent on such a thing.
They put in fios here about 3 months ago, and based on the colored
dots on teh grass, it seems at least one of my neighbors has
subscribed. I live in a middle middle income townhose n'hood and I
don't think anyone here can really afford it, but some will buy it.
> But I can't understand how the two of you don't know that you can't
> tell just from looking, and why you think there was no sig. when I've
> told you there was one**. And why it's so important to each of you,
> and why you're so sure you're right, that you go to the trouble to
> post.
A) There was no sig (as Google will verify.) It appeared as plain
text in the body of your message. Nothing to distinguish it as a
sig rather than just more of your post. How was one to know where
your text stopped and your sig began?
Message-ID: <f9sad49rer18db4fq...@4ax.com>
B) You're taking the trouble to reply. What does that say?
The internet I already have is Comcast. Unless I drop back to the
slow-motion hell of dial-up, or move up to a multi-hundred-bucks-a-month
fractional T line, there simply IS no alternative. (I've looked into
that option, and no matter how I try to diddle the numbers, it just
plain ain't feasible - As a ballpark figure, I'd be laying out something
on the order of 30 grand for the install, and likely waiting for close
to a year for it to happen, before I saw so much as a single byte of
data traveling on it.)
Like I said: Ain't communications monopolies wonderful?
> You are using Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) which is
>about six years old. Even so, it should support a proper sig file.
>What you are using right now is not a sig delimiter. It is missing the
>space after the dashes.
My version of agent has no problem seeing mm's dash-dash-space.
Something is wrong at your end. Maybe Mozilla strips trailing spaces?
>What you are using right now is not a sig delimiter. It is missing the
>space after the dashes.
This is mm's post as seen by Google:
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/msg/f433ba78b75a0ae2?dmode=source
There is definitely a dash-dash-space sig delimiter.
Don Bruder wrote:
Were you the OP ?
Well you'll have to stick with comcast and shell out a few shillings for news. I
reckon Astraweb's $10 one-off pre-pay deal is good for many years for text groups.
Graham
I did that when UPenn dropped USENET, but then someone suggested aioe
(nntp.aioe.org) which is currently free, and seems to be just about as good.
And no sign-in passowrd.
--
sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html
Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.
> nospam wrote:
>
> > http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
> >
> > I'm gonna miss these two groups more than most.
> >
> > Thanks for all the help over the last 15+ years.
>
> Go to astraweb. $10 non-expiring 25GB of downloads.
>
> Graham
I did that when UPenn dropped USENET, but then someone suggested aioe
(nntp.aioe.org) which is currently free, and seems to be just about as good.
And no sign-in password.
Individual.net has been good to me for a few years now.
It's about $18 per year - close enough to free for me.
--
PeteCresswell
Thanks, that was just what I was looking for.
ADSL is unavailable in much of the country, including many places that
aren't nearly as isolated as one might think.
I live 25 miles outside Nashville in a neighborhood filling with
"McMansions". Here, it's either Charter or dialup. No FIOS, no DSL, no
wireless. (my Sprint phone doesn't even work unless I go outside...)
> I did that when UPenn dropped USENET, but then someone suggested aioe
> (nntp.aioe.org) which is currently free, and seems to be just about as good.
> And no sign-in password.
And blocked by many users because of the amount of SPAM and troll messages
that originate from that site.
Now that's a real answer -- and I appreciate that you are forthright
enough to give one -- which could well account for the insistance of
allodox and uclan that it wasn't a sig. Maybe that's their reason
too.
But WADR I'm not convinced it's true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_block says nothing about any
required delimiter.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci212987,00.html
doesn't either.
http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/docs/Usenet.html says only:
"Avoid long rambling signatures. Keep your sig short and simple.
MT-NewsWatcher encourages the "McQuary limit" for signatures-at most
four lines of at most 80 characters each; if you enter a longer sig in
the Personalities dialog, it will warn you. You cannot enter a sig
longer than 8 lines."
I could keep looking, but I have other reasons to think a sig file
needs no delimiter.
1) When I started on Usenet, v. 0.99 was the current version of Agent.
I don't think it recognized --b as something special, and neither it
nor any version up to v 1.93, which I'm using now, inserted those
characters. The sig file is whatever one types in the sig field,
which later gets appended to an individual article's text, afaict.
In addition, IIRC, --b was an innovation a few years after I started
in Usenet. I don't think such a later innovation works to redefine
sig. retroactively.
>That combination of
>two dashes, a space and a return allow proper news readers to
>automatically trim the signature when you reply to a message. ANything
>else is just inline text, no matter why it is there. Your news reader
>software should automatically add the delimiter, followed by a simple
>text file you create as your signature.
AFAIK even later versions of Agent** don't add a delimiter, and there
are certainly times, not with a sig as long as mine is now, but with a
short one, when someone might not want his sig stripped, maybe if it
were a copyright notice or the disclaimer "I am not a lawyer".
**Now maybe some think that Agent is not "proper" for this reason
(although v1.93 and higher, and maybe some lower versions do strip the
--b delimited sigs) but I've looked at OE and Netscape and maybe one
or two other news readers, and even early versions of Agent have far
more commands and are far more versatile. There are a couple features
(like allowng a different email -from address for posts and emails)
that my version doesn't have that OE does have, but newer versions of
Agent have those now.
I think this might be a cultural difference, like in some cultures
it's polite to burp after the meal, or to leave food on the plate to
prove one has had enough. If one lives with a newsreader that auto
inserts the --b, it seems like the proper thing to do, but if one
lives in Agent world, it doesn't seem necessary.
BTW, FWIW, I think Agent is the only newsreader that has its own
newsgroup, two of them actually. One for modifying the code. OE etc.
has one or more NGs but most of the traffic is about email, I think.
> You are using Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) which is
>about six years old. Even so, it should support a proper sig file.
>What you are using right now is not a sig delimiter. It is missing the
>space after the dashes.
For one reason or another, you don't see it, but Franc and I do. All 3
characters. When I reply to my own posts on this group, the sig. gets
stripped.
>> I only figured out on Tuesday that my service was cancelled; it took
>> until Thursday to pick an alternative, and until Saturday when I read
>> the start of this thread to decide to tell everyone how
>> Erols/RCN/Starpower had behaved. My post in this thread was the
>> first time I had used the sig, and so it had errors. Once I saw them,
>> I was able to correct them.
>> --
>> A tribute to Erols/RCN/Starpower which took away newsgroups,
>> without giving any notice, in advance or when they did it!!
>>
>> And a real tribute to https://www.forteinc.com/apn/subscribe.php
>> which starts at 3 dollars for 12 gigs a month,
>> including alt, misc, the big 8 and everything else, 12 gigs is
>> far more than someone who dl's mostly text should ever need.
The sig just above wasn't stripped when you replied, and watching the
insertion point, it surely appears that there is no space after the
--. But I put a space in the sig text, and when I reply to the same
post, the sig gets stripped. If you're using mozilla and it stripped
trailing spaces, no sig would get auto-trimmed for you, and I'm sure
that's not the situation. Another confusing computer moment.
Best regards,
>mm wrote:
>
>> But I can't understand how the two of you don't know that you can't
>> tell just from looking, and why you think there was no sig. when I've
>> told you there was one**. And why it's so important to each of you,
>> and why you're so sure you're right, that you go to the trouble to
>> post.
"Read my sig" was meant to tell the OP that he should look at the
bottom for critical information, in case he became bored by the
details in the text about what was needed for conversion, etc.
>A) There was no sig (as Google will verify.) It appeared as plain
> text in the body of your message. Nothing to distinguish it as a
> sig rather than just more of your post.
And why would that matter to the OP?
> How was one to know where
> your text stopped and your sig began?
Why does he have to know?
As long as he reads to the end, he'll see the part I especially wanted
him to see.
My post in reply to Michael disputes the notion that a sig. has to
start with --b. I don't think it does, so therefore Google can't
verify that there was no sig. Such a sig. can be recognized when it
appears over and over after*** every article a person posts. ***Of
course one or more newsreaders allow for inserting a sig. other than
at the end.
> Message-ID: <f9sad49rer18db4fq...@4ax.com>
>
>B) You're taking the trouble to reply. What does that say?
I already know that I have a morbid curiosity about things like this
and the people who do them. But you didn't answer why you thought it
important enough to post. You may have more time for self-examination.
>> There's lots wrong with dialup when you're downloading multi-megabyte
files.
> I have no need to do that. (Of course others might need that capability
> and they would require a faster connection.)
>> Yeah, I guess the interstate highways were a really lousy idea, too.
>> Eisenhower, that damned socialist.
> The internet is of no real importance. Roads are. (As to whether the
> Interstate Highway System was a good idea, or constitutional, that's
> a discussion for a different place and time.)
I'm sure lots of people -- including business people -- would strongly
disagree.
Are you still living in the 17th century?
> I'm sure lots of people -- including business people -- would strongly
> disagree.
Absolutely. A decent data link can reduce the amount of post etc
previously sent by road - and faster and at lower cost.
Whatever the pros and cons of private versus public finance one thing can
be sure, you don't want to let just one private company carry it out -
otherwise they are likely to try and benefit unreasonably from a monopoly
situation.
--
*A backward poet writes inverse.*
>On 20 Sep 2008 23:43:01 GMT, Allodoxaphobia <bit-b...@config.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:00:47 -0400, mm wrote:
>>> On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:44:11 -0700, "nospam" <a@b.c> wrote:
>>>
>>>>http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
>>>>
>>>>I'm gonna miss these two groups more than most.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks for all the help over the last 15+ years.
>>>
>>> Read my sig.
>>
>>... if you had one.
>
>The post you replied to had one. Does it have to have a blank line or
>label that says sig for you to be able to tell?
I didn't see a sig either. Perhaps your server is stripping it?
--
----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---
Except it does--the last paragraph under "Email and Usenet" metions that
it "must be delimited from the body of the message by a single line
consisting of exactly two hyphens, followed by a space, followed by the
end of line...."
<snip again>
> http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/docs/Usenet.html says only:
> "Avoid long rambling signatures. Keep your sig short and simple.
> MT-NewsWatcher encourages the "McQuary limit" for signatures-at most
> four lines of at most 80 characters each; if you enter a longer sig in
> the Personalities dialog, it will warn you. You cannot enter a sig
> longer than 8 lines."
That's because MT-NewsWatcher automatically inserts the delimiter for
you. I know, as I use it and have it insert a signature. (It's a quite
nice newsreader program, by the way.)
> I could keep looking, but I have other reasons to think a sig file
> needs no delimiter.
It's a long-standing convention in Usenet that the signature should be
preceded by a dash-dash-space delimiter. I guess it's not "needed" in
the sense that you can send a message without one, but there are good
reasons to play along with the accepted rules, too. A great many
newsreaders will automatically trim off signatures thus demarked when
creating a followup message, for example.
--
Andrew Erickson
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot
lose." -- Jim Elliot
>>A) There was no sig (as Google will verify.) It appeared as plain
>> text in the body of your message. Nothing to distinguish it as a
>> sig rather than just more of your post.
>
> And why would that matter to the OP?
>
>> How was one to know where
>> your text stopped and your sig began?
>
> Why does he have to know?
Because *you* instructed him to *read your sig*. If he looked for a sig,
he found none. You instructed him to read something that didn't exist.
Roger Blake wrote:
> On 2008-09-21, William Sommerwerck <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > There's lots wrong with dialup when you're downloading multi-megabyte files.
>
> I have no need to do that. (Of course others might need that capability
> and they would require a faster connection.)
>
> > Yeah, I guess the interstate highways were a really lousy idea, too.
> > Eisenhower, that damned socialist.
>
> The internet is of no real importance. Roads are.
Really ?
In some instances like teleworking the internet can REPLACE the road.
Graham
"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote:
> Eeyore writes:
> > Don Bruder wrote:
> > > Eeyore wrote:
> > > > Don Bruder wrote:
Limited number of posts per day (not many) and NO cross-posting.
Graham
"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote:
> Eeyore writes:
> > nospam wrote:
> >
> > > http://www.comcast.net/newsgroups/
> > >
> > > I'm gonna miss these two groups more than most.
> > >
> > > Thanks for all the help over the last 15+ years.
> >
> > Go to astraweb. $10 non-expiring 25GB of downloads.
>
> I did that when UPenn dropped USENET, but then someone suggested aioe
> (nntp.aioe.org) which is currently free, and seems to be just about as good.
> And no sign-in password.
OK for low volume users only.
I use it too sometimes.
Graham
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
They also tolerate Usenet abusers. One reason I HATE them.
Graham
Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:07:15 +0100, Eeyore wrote:
> >> The problem:
> >> What would you suggest I use for connectivity?
> >
> > No alternative at all ? Cable or ADSL, whichever Comcast isn't. If none then
> > presumably the internet you already have ?
>
> ADSL is unavailable in much of the country, including many places that
> aren't nearly as isolated as one might think.
Tssk. But then the UK has the advantage of being a smaller place. And telecoms
(including internet service) is highly deregulated.
For example I have 2 physical phone lines. One can provide ADSL, the other has
cable attached. If I felt the need to combine the two (and this can be done) I
could be essentially 'fault tolerant' and obtain speeds in in the 40 Mbps region.
Graham
paper mail is just the beginning. (dialup is sufficient for that)
a decent data link can reduce the number of people sent by road
Bye.
Jasen
Which is precisely the reason why having the government build the
infrastructure with public dollars makes so much sense. It encourages
competition and potentially keeps costs down to the consumer..
> "Dave Plowman (News)" <da...@davenoise.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:4fe2ccb...@davenoise.co.uk...
> > In article <sLadnVxX-8xcGkrV...@comcast.com>,
> > William Sommerwerck <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > > > The internet is of no real importance. Roads are. (As to whether the
> > > > Interstate Highway System was a good idea, or constitutional, that's
> > > > a discussion for a different place and time.)
> >
> > > I'm sure lots of people -- including business people -- would strongly
> > > disagree.
> >
> > Absolutely. A decent data link can reduce the amount of post etc
> > previously sent by road - and faster and at lower cost.
> >
> > Whatever the pros and cons of private versus public finance one thing can
> > be sure, you don't want to let just one private company carry it out -
> > otherwise they are likely to try and benefit unreasonably from a monopoly
> > situation.
>
> Which is precisely the reason why having the government build the
> infrastructure with public dollars makes so much sense. It encourages
> competition and potentially keeps costs down to the consumer..
Ummm... Have you forgotten that you're talking about the government
here?
"Government" and "keeping costs down" are mutually exclusive concepts.
--
Don Bruder - dak...@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info
>On 2008-09-21, mm <NOPSAM...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>> I have dsl for a year now. WRT email and Usenet, the extra speed
>> means next to nothing. Its good that webpages are faster, but I used
>> to dl webpages while reading my email or the newsgroups.
>
>I still do almost everything from a Unix shell, so the extra speed would
>not be that important to me. Inexpensive DSL is not available in my area
>and I'm too cheap to pay for cable service.
I know that's called cheap by others, or you when you are being
self-effacing, but I think you're spending your money wisely. I'll bet
you won't ave to go on welfare when you're 75.
>> What is nice about dsl is it's easier to play radio; and even tv such
>> as the political conventions, where it started even earlier than
>> public tv. But I don't have cable tv
>
>Oh, if cheap DSL were available here I'd probably get it. But to me
>the extra speed is just not worth the price of the more expensive-type
>broadband connections.
I agree with you. I held off until it was 15 dollars a month. At the
time, I convinced myself that they wouldn't raise it mch when the 2
years were up, but I don't know that.
This is for verizon dsl (the slower of the 2 dsl speeds they offer,
but it's fast enough for me). Comcast cable used to be about the same
price when verizon dsl was much higher. But when dsl went down,
comcast was much more expensive. I think those were my only two
choices except for satellite I suppose which I'mn sure is also very
expensive. I'm intrigued by the cell phone internet, but it was
expensive too, and I would only use it about 2 weeks every ten years.
I have a laptop that I took on a long semi-business trip, where I used
netcafes and the wireless in the dorm I stayed in (at age 60), but
when Im in the US, I only use it for showing tourist pictures to
people. I do all my other computer stuff at home.
>> They put in fios here about 3 months ago, and based on the colored
>> dots on teh grass, it seems at least one of my neighbors has
>> subscribed. I live in a middle middle income townhose n'hood and I
>> don't think anyone here can really afford it, but some will buy it.
>
>I have nothing against fiber-optic per se but am not willing to
>pay for it. The U.S. is pretty much broke at this point and it's hard
>to view that as any kind of priority for the use of public funds.
I didn't think the public was paying for any of it, unless a household
signs up!!
> Ummm... Have you forgotten that you're talking about the government
> here?
> "Government" and "keeping costs down" are mutually exclusive concepts.
Think about what I'm suggesting before objecting.
Oh... Got it. Didn't notice the sarcasm the first time around.
Q: What's an elephant?
A: A mouse, built [to government specifications/by the government].
There wasn't any. There are some things government should do, including
putting infrastructures in place that market-based businesses can make use
of. It benefits everyone.
> "Don Bruder" <dak...@sonic.net> wrote in message
> news:McydneKQ5IvamUTV...@comcast.com...
> > In article <ZKqdnXFRn4bjVEXV...@comcast.com>,
> > "William Sommerwerck" <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > > >> Which is precisely the reason why having the government build the
> > > >> infrastructure with public dollars makes so much sense. It encourages
> > > >> competition and potentially keeps costs down to the consumer..
> > >
> > > > Ummm... Have you forgotten that you're talking about the government
> > > > here?
> > >
> > > > "Government" and "keeping costs down" are mutually exclusive concepts.
> > >
> > > Think about what I'm suggesting before objecting.
> >
> > Oh... Got it. Didn't notice the sarcasm the first time around.
>
> There wasn't any. There are some things government should do, including
> putting infrastructures in place that market-based businesses can make use
> of. It benefits everyone.
Government exists to serve me, the individual citizen, not businesses.
Period.
The government as it stands today is failing miserably on all counts
when it comes to serving the citizen. On the other hand, it's doing a
damn fine job of screwing them over in favor of businesses.
> Government exists to serve me, the individual citizen, not businesses.
> Period.
That's the whole point; give a business the monopoly of providing that
infrastructure and the main aim of that business is to make money - not
serve the citizen. Competition is what keeps business in check (hopefully)
and with this sort of project there can be none.
> The government as it stands today is failing miserably on all counts
> when it comes to serving the citizen. On the other hand, it's doing a
> damn fine job of screwing them over in favor of businesses.
Seems to be governments world wide...
--
*What boots up must come down *
True, but that's not what I'm talking about. Imagine what transportation in
the US would be like if the interstate highways had been built by private
interests. Both businesses and individuals would be paying outrageous tolls
to drive from state to state.
Similarly, a government-installed fiber-optic system -- for every house,
every business -- would permit _multiple_ companies to provide high-speed
communication, instead of the near-monopoly that currently exists. That
means competition, and (hopefully) better service at a lower price.
Seems we've had this discussion before. Thanks for understanding and
agreeing.