🚀 go-pugleaf

rbischof@pobox.com (Ronald J. Bischof) wrote:
> trebor@sirius.com wrote:
> > mitchb2@ix.netcom.com (Maestro) wrote:
> > >teddybur@netcom.com (John Sanger) wrote:
> > >>By unlimited use, Netcom has defined this as active keyboard involvement
> > >>with you sitting in front of your keyboard and actively inputting
> > >>keystrokes from time to time.......
> > >What if you set Agent to download a ton of stuff from binaries groups?
> > >I've done that before and wasn't disconnected.
> > Then you're generating traffic, and that's ok. In fact, that's probably the
> > best way to read newsgroups online. Start of big batch of binary downloads,
> > then go read your newsgroup.
> > Saturate your connection as much as possible. If you don't use all your
> > bandwidth, it just goes to waste.
> Gee, sounds wasteful and boring. I just set Eudora Pro 3.0 to check my
> mail every 8 minutes and stay connected as long as I want.

That depends - if you're downloading the binaries just to hold a connection
open, that's defeating the purpose - you might as well go offline, you've
already gotten the news you're actually going to read.  But you might as well
read part of the news while the rest of it is downloading, yes, unless there's
something better to do while you're online (Web browsing, log into another
site, etc).

Other points to ponder:
1) How much can you do online before your bandwidth (not the slowness of the
   servers you're accessing) becomes the limiting factor, i.e. when each new
   task slows all your others down?  Should that point be considered the most
   efficient usage of your connection?
2) How much of the servers' time are you using by multitasking, and is it
   worth it to get off the modem faster?  Probably so - the servers probably
   handle hundreds or thousands of people all day, while a local modem bank
   only takes a couple dozen people to block it.

-- 
Ed Murphy                       "A person who is 'of sound mind' is one who
zvyezda@ix.netcom.com            keeps the inner madman under lock and key."
#include <std/disclaimer.h>                                -Paul Valery