Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site jhunix.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!seismo!umcp-cs!aplcen!jhunix!ins_akaa
From: ins_akaa@jhunix.UUCP (Kenneth Adam Arromdee)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Rich Rosen costs the net $10,000
Message-ID: <1282@jhunix.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 24-Nov-85 15:29:28 EST
Article-I.D.: jhunix.1282
Posted: Sun Nov 24 15:29:28 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Nov-85 20:23:03 EST
References: <10108@tardis.UUCP> <949@unmvax.UUCP> <2028@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: ins_akaa@jhunix.ARPA (Kenneth Adam Arromdee)
Distribution: net
Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ. Computing Ctr.
Lines: 47

In article <2028@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
>	I recently read somewhere that if Rich Rosen were a site, he would
>be number 2 in total volume.  ...
>|          No. of      % of
>| Rank Articles Kbytes Total  Site
>|    2    96     226.5  2.3%  pyuxd.UUCP (Bell Comm. Research, Piscataway (PY))
>|          No. of       % of
>| Rank Articles KBytes Total   User
>|    2    96     226.5  2.3%   rlr@pyuxd.UUCP  (Rich Rosen)
>	Assume the typical site expires news in 1 week.  Rich is thus using
>an average of 113 kbytes at every site.  Last time I counted (14-Sept-85),
>there were 3897 sites in the uucp map; call it an even 4000 by now.  That's
>a total of about 450 Mbytes world-wide.  I've been pricing disks lately; a
>380 Mbyte (formatted capacity) eagle from a "discount" supplier for $8k is
>the best buy I can find, which works out to about $21/Mbyte.  Thus, the net
>has collectively donated some $9500 to Rich so he can spew forth all that
>crap.  The 7 day average expiration is probably low; ...  Most sites probably
>don't get that good a deal on disks ...  and I havn't even considered
>the biggie: phone bills.  Is he really worth it?  Maybe we should start a
>new group: mod.rosen. :-)
>Roy Smith <allegra!phri!roy>

Use of already-purchased disk space that would otherwise have been empty
doesn't really cost the news-subscribing organization anything. Therefore,
claiming that Rich Rosen's postings have cost people $9500 is no more 
logical than saying that, for example... each site has disks which
average 380 Mbytes each and on the average has one disk which is incompletely
filled. Some have this last disk almost full and some almost empty; the average
is a wasting of 1/2 a disk. 1/2 disk per site * 4000 sites * $8000/disk=
$16000000 wasted by the net on blank disk space, or $2000 PER SITE. If 
it was possible to buy storage space by the megabyte as needed, and sell it
back as needed, at a price exactly proportional to the price of a full
380M disk, then your argument might have some merit, because Rich Rosen's
postings would mean that the net would have to collectively have $9500
more in disk space to hold his postings. But in fact storage space
is not sold that way, and the sites have an average of $2000 each in wasted
disk space, or $16000000 total, which is more than enough to cover Rich 
Rosen's postings.

-- 
If you know the alphabet up to 'k', you can teach it up to 'k'.

Kenneth Arromdee
BITNET: G46I4701 at JHUVM and INS_AKAA at JHUVMS
CSNET: ins_akaa@jhunix.CSNET              ARPA: ins_akaa%jhunix@hopkins.ARPA
UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!aplcen!jhunix!ins_akaa
      ...allegra!hopkins!jhunix!ins_akaa