lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (03/13/85)
Just a very short note. The reason you haven't heard too much lately is that we've now entered a "slower" phase in the project where a variety of issues regarding organization and internal technical issues are being hashed out. I'm currently waiting for the first of the new production data decoders to become available for my direct testing. Unlike the big rack-mount type unit I'm using now, the new unit will resemble a set-top cable TV box and should include remote addressing, error correction, and decryption facilities. Its small size will enable me to test it in a variety of locations with much less hassle than the current old style decoder entails. Test data (a variety of canned netnews messages) continues to flow over the satellite channels 24 hours/day. I recently ran decoder tests at Lucasfilm (San Rafael) and got a 0% error rate from the suburban cable that serves the facility. I hope to test for error rates in very highly urbanized and very rural areas soon. I am now receiving the test data from Stargate at a steady 1200 bps on vortex (I have removed the artificial sleeps on the sending side that I had installed before the Usenix demo in Dallas) and I'm finding that vortex is usually able to keep up with the data even without flow control. The next big step will probably occur when the new decoders start becoming reasonably available--this will make possible the early creation of a small "test network" of sites which will be able to receive the transmitted test data. --Lauren--