🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <801188699snz@siberia.demon.co.uk>,
Philip McNab  <philip@siberia.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <3pqnr9$669@wpnext.wpine.com> carl@wpine.com "Carl Koppel" writes:
>
>> Check out http://cu-seeme.cornell.edu.  CU-SeeMe is public domain software
>>  which 
>> allows you to transmit both audio and video across the internet.
>
>This sounds to me like an abuse of internet bandwidth.  It's only
>because the internet has no mechanism for billing for usage that 
>products such as this have a niche.  If you use this sort of thing over 
>a phone line you pay full whack, but if you use it over the 'net, there
>appear to be no cost.
>
>This is false: there are no free lunches, and there is no free 
>bandwidth -- someone, somewhere is paying for it, and since this 
>software will inevitably use a lot of bandwidth, someone is paying a lot.
>
>Using the net as a way of avoiding paying for bandwidth like this
>seems like a really good way to hasten the arrival of some sort of
>pricing mechanism.
>
>In the meantime, I want to keep on using the 'net for data, and I hope
>that Demon bans its customers from using this software -- so that there
>is some capacity left for the rest of us.
>

I think it is good that most people do not have this attitude or the net would
never advance.  'Bandwidth-wasting' programs of today will be commonplace
tomorrow.  Sooner or later, bandwidth WILL be so cheap that its cost will be
insignificant.  I say, use all you can!

-tk