mdr@dduck.ctt.bellcore.com (Mike Rychener) (09/16/90)
With ISDN, it is apparently possible to carry on several communications simultaneously, including data and voice and Fax, etc. That alone would save on the number of physical phone lines needed. I can imagine newspapers, entertainment (movies, concerts), magazines, video news, all customized to individual preferences, arriving on your terminal (which could be a wall-sized display, sometime soon). This could be a daily (overnight) service. Also, how about video teleconferencing, either real-time or time-shifted. These all assume substantially more bandwidth than the original ISDN, of course. And let's get rid of the Postal Service. Mike Rychener
anselm@castle.ed.ac.uk (Anselm Lingnau) (09/18/90)
Mike Rychener comments: > I can imagine newspapers, entertainment (movies, concerts), magazines, > video news, all customized to individual preferences, arriving on > your terminal I don't know whether that would be a good idea. Various Secret Services, though, might like to be able to obtain listings of which people read which `radical' publication... Also one could foresee `customized' junk `mail' to an even larger extent than is normal these days. Yuck. The trouble about the whole business is that while the technology seems to be just about ready, the legislation (privacy, protection of personal data, ...) is not. Not in most places in the world, not by a long shot. Anselm Lingnau
prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) (09/19/90)
In a recent article Mike Rychener writes: > With ISDN, it is apparently possible to carry on several communications > simultaneously, including data and voice and Fax, etc. That alone would > save on the number of physical phone lines needed. But... isn't the data communications part of ISDN a circuit-switched network like X.21 as opposed to a packet-switching one? That would mean that there can only be one connection per ISDN outlet (just like with a dial-up modem). And then there's of course the problem with interfacing to ISDN. If my memory serves me right, X.21 is needed in order to get auto-connection. Otherwise, one will need to connect manually using some kind of external box. Robert Claeson
geo@syd.dit.csiro.au (George Bray) (09/25/90)
ISDN can be used to extend the local area networks we use. International file servers can be used from the comfort of your own home as the wire you currently use for the telephone can be the protocol connection of tomorrow. Dial-in networks with reasonable bandwidth can be used for remote education. "Here's how to use this program, now let me see you do it". The "Caller Identification" can be used to retrieve all the details of the last pizza you ordered. Same again? George Bray
jj@Eng.Sun.COM (Jennifer Jacobi) (10/11/90)
Anselm Lingnau writes: > Various Secret Services ... might like to be able to obtain listings > of which people read which `radical' publication... Also one could > foresee `customized' junk `mail' to an even larger extent than is > normal these days. Yuck. Hmmm... So lets say the secret service does want to know what you read... why dont they just grab your .newsrc? Or why don't they grab the alias listing for a 'radical' mail group? Mind you this is a _primitive_ version of a news filter, but it does provide a way for an individual to specify a listing of news_groups to read. And as for junk mail... the "signal to noise" ratio on many news groups and mailing lists is the equivalent to junk mail. IMHO All that an elaborate information customizer will do is provide a way for me to view the information I am interested in _quicker_. Jennifer Jacobi