Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ncoast.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!cwruecmp!atvax!ncoast!bsa From: bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Newsgroups: net.news.stargate Subject: Re: Stargate Deployment: possibilities Message-ID: <598@ncoast.UUCP> Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 18:03:54 EST Article-I.D.: ncoast.598 Posted: Wed Feb 13 18:03:54 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 17-Feb-85 04:49:20 EST References: <233@cmu-cs-k.ARPA> <1236@eagle.UUCP> <159@dmsd.UUCP> Reply-To: bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Organization: North Coast Programming, Cleveland Lines: 62 Summary: [These are the voyages of the Stargate Enterprise...] Okay, let's discuss StarGate possibilities. Certainly it's saner than Frank Adrian's blatherings... and Lauren lacks the time to handle this stuff. The StarGate Experiment is, basically, to see whether netnews CAN BE TRANSMITTED via satellite and received. If it's not possible to get netnews into and back out of the vertical interval, or if the soft/hard technology required on the receiving end is too complex or expensive or just plain doesn't work (I still haven't figured out how rnews would work as a box instead of a program), StarGate will have failed. If, however, news can be transmitted over the StarGate and received on machines equipped with decoders, and the news received is not garbaged, lost in transmission, et cetera, then the experiment will have succeeded. This is non-trivial, and is much wider in scope (if rnews can be put in a box, you may be able to plug something the size of a Model 100 into your cable box and read netnews -- score one for the global information network). IF this works, the next step is to turn the initial apparatus into a commercially feasible decoder box, which (preferably) could be sold for under $500 or rented for some low per-monthly charge. This will probably take a while. In about 3-4 years, we may finally see real Usenet sites using StarGate. And not heavily at first, even with the push to lower phone bills; if the argument for keeping the net exists *at all*, it will preclude switching to an almost-empty early Stargate. Probably major sites will use both for a time, until it gets going... then possibly not drop the net, except for the stuff it gets off of StarGate. Now, as for alternatives: Hamnet sounds like a good idea; someone should try it out. Can you imagine a tiny inews program for a Commodore 64 with an RTTY interface? :-} How about *un-encoded* satellite Usenet? A combination of the non-technical groups on here would make a good entertainment channel on many cable networks, with articles rebroadcast as often as necessary to allow a large cross-section of viewers to read them, something like cable news services like UPI. Certainly the cable companies would never go broke showing articles from net.soaps! (Which should not be taken to indicate *my* opinion of said newsgroup; I never subscribed to it in the first place.) Articles could be handled the way current moderated Usenet is handled, but with the above-mentioned repostings. This does, however, leave the postnews side open... maybe *mailed* postings to the local cable company, to be forwarded (eventually) to the newsgroup moderator. Certainly it'd give people more of a chance to think before posting, a necessity if you made Usenet available to all (else we'd be just as bad off as we are now). Any other ideas to be *** looked into *** ? I am specifically NOT suggesting that these replace the net; I am suggesting alternative ideas for cheap access. We could probably find people to start Ham-net right now, as a test; I might even look into a ham license. Any takers? Brandon (bsa@ncoast.UUCP) (P.S. Isn't this *much* nicer than flames?) -- Brandon Allbery, decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsa, "ncoast!bsa"@case.csnet (etc.) 6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, Ohio 44131 +1 216 524 1416 (or what have you) -=> Does the Doctor make house calls? <=-