Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!lll-winken!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!djm
From: djm@etive.ed.ac.uk (D Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Electronic Newspapers
Message-ID: <1960@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 8 May 89 19:52:14 GMT
References: <2331.246511D1@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>
Reply-To: djm@etive.ed.ac.uk (D Murphy)
Organization: Edinburgh University Computer Services
Lines: 50

In article <2331.246511D1@isishq.FIDONET.ORG> Doug.Thompson@p101.f162.n221.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Doug Thompson) writes:
> 
>Phone speeds are comparable to ethernet,with 38 Kbaud transmission of text 
>being possible over voice grade lines today, 19200 BAUD being common. How do 
>you think all this news ends up on your computer for you to read? All of it 
>(here anyway) comes in over the 19.2 Kbaud modems at night 
>
>--  
> Doug Thompson - via FidoNet node 1:221/162
>     UUCP: ...!watmath!isishq!162.101!Doug.Thompson
> Internet: Doug.Thompson@p101.f162.n221.z1.FIDONET.ORG

OK - so it happens in the States, and for biggish organizations like the
military or universities and businesses who can grab the phone companies
by the scruff of the neck and demand a decent service. Certainly in the
UK the major phone company, British Telecom (recently sold off due to
government dogma) treats the small user like dirt - not only is the service
lousy but it is hard to get even a 9600 baud modem that they'll approve.
Furthermore, by privatizing the system the government cut off the possibility
for central finance aid for improvements like fast installation of digital
fibre-optic systems at a time when such is becoming vital.

All this is politics, though. The problem of data transmission is still there.
Even with transmission of compressed data, I can see pictures being a problem.
I use Xerox Ventura Publisher, and occasionally import bit image captures
of spectra and other externally generated hard copy. Even coming off the
hard disk at (what Western Digital say in the manual is) 7.5Mbps it still
takes a formidable amount of time to generate one picture.
This might be fine for LeMond, or for quality publications where the premium
is on the printed word, but it won't do for the bulk sellers which rely for
much of their popularity on pictorial data which is easily conveyed. For
this reason there may be severe problems providing a service like electronic
news cheaply enough (in the near future) to make it a viable proposition.


Murff....

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D.J. Murphy
Chemistry Dept.
Univ. of Edinburgh

  "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work,
    I want to achieve it through not dying."

                                            Woody Allen