Lee_-_Wells@cup.portal.com (05/05/88)
I have recently been told that the usenet news is being broadcast on a subcarrier of the Turner Boardcasting System, and that some magic black box could turn this into the usenet news that any unix system could pick up. However, I have no idea what the box cost, who sells it, what it's baud rate would be, or maybe how to build it. I will admit that i am new to the net, and that maybe i have just missed this information...but it does sound like a neat (that should be neat back there) like to receive usenet. Please post to this group, if I am off track, or if the box cost thousands of dollars, or if it hasn't been built yet, or if you would like to send me mail I would take that also..... Another easy question I guess, why isn't anything posted to this group? [or does this system just not keep them back that far?] thank for your time and may the farce be with you :-)
bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) (05/08/88)
In article <5105@cup.portal.com> Lee_-_Wells@cup.portal.com writes: >I have recently been told that the usenet news is being broadcast on a >subcarrier of the Turner Boardcasting System, and that some magic black box >could turn this into the usenet news that any unix system could pick up. I am looking at it come in, even as we speak. You are partially correct in that the moderated groups are broadcast via Stargate, not all of the usenet news. The magic black box plucks the text out of the TBS vertical interval and converts it to a 2400bps data stream. The Stargate project provides the program to read the stream and inject it into your standard news software. >However, I have no idea what the box cost, who sells it, what it's baud rate >would be, or maybe how to build it. I will admit that i am new to the net, and >that maybe i have just missed this information...but it does sound like a neat >(that should be neat back there) like to receive usenet. The business manager for the project can be reached through my site or cbosgd!starbase!steve, if you go through here it's however!ssbn!starbase!steve. I don't think that new subscriptions are being accepted at the moment because some redesign is being done in the delivery method, pricing, etc. Steve does have a blurb that he sends out that repeats, with authority, what I am telling you in this follow up. Speaking strictly for myself, it's a godsend. I get a lot of stuff that neither I nor any readers/neighbors care about, but there is no transport expense to do it (I get it off of a backyard satellite dish, you can also get it over cable TV). The number of dollars actually disbursed to Stargate for all of the moderated groups is less than what I would spend on a telephone link to only get the ones we are interested in. >Please post to this group, if I am off track, or if the box cost thousands >of dollars, or if it hasn't been built yet, or if you would like to send >me mail I would take that also..... I will mail a copy of this followup to the principals. I know, for a fact, that Steve's system is down at the moment, but he should be alive again by the time this propagates back to you. Note that Stargate is not ssbn's sole source of usenet news. I still pay for a conventional feed but it is restricted to those groups that I consider cost effective to carry. The neighbor sites I feed and I decide what they are since the neighbors have to pay LD to get them from me. I have very short expiration times on the moderated groups that none of us read and that heals itself too. If someone asks "what happened to comp.binaries.mac?" I just stretch the expiration out a few days. >Another easy question I guess, why isn't anything posted to this group? >[or does this system just not keep them back that far?] I have posted to it from time to time, but I'm not sure who reads it. If I was sure that the Stargate principals read it I wouldn't be sending them a copy of this via email! In fairness to all concerned however, Stargate is a great idea whose time may not yet have come. It was quickly eclipsed by a companion Usenix experiment called "uunet" and the 9600bps modems have shoved it farther into the fog. On the plus side, it is repeatable, reliable, and (in my case) cost effective. Since it is fed a little off the backbone there tends to be a propagation delay of five to twenty hours from a "hot site", but somehow I don't mind getting mail maps a day late. It's marvelous for the bulky groups like maps, binaries, and sources. I seldom agree with Bob Webber but he mentioned that dead postings should go to dead groups like news.stargate and I can't flaw that logic. There is so little traffic in this group that maybe we should give it up. -- Bill Kennedy usenet {rutgers,ihnp4!killer,cbosgd}!ssbn!bill internet bill@ssbn.WLK.COM