Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Dial up access to Internet facilities
Message-ID: <1990May31.211414.8140@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <118@ultrix.uhasun.hartford.edu> <9005302148.AA02245@psi.com>
Date: Thu, 31 May 90 21:14:14 GMT

In article <9005302148.AA02245@psi.com> schoff@PSI.COM ("Martin Lee Schoffstall") writes:
>I think the counter argument is that if it doesn't work reliably/well
>especially in the beginning then people won't rely on it to provide
>communications for their everyday needs...

True in general, but one must beware of thinking of "reliably" and "well"
as Booleans.  Uucp mail is unreliable and ungodly slow by Internet
standards, but vast numbers of sites found it reliable *enough* and
workable *enough* to come to rely on it very extensively.

The reason why a zoology department (!) was a major networking hub
at U of T for some years was that everybody else was so obsessed with
Internet (or better) performance that they wouldn't even look at silly
ideas like networking via low-speed modems.  We set up our phone links
and started shipping mail and news, and pretty soon half the campus
had uucp links to us.  Half a loaf is much more nutritious than none.
-- 
As a user I'll take speed over|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu